Pittsburgh Dish

A friend of animals

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On Monday, Aug. 6, Animal Friends is proud to honor Ms. Eula Houston, our dedicated Animal Care Coordinator, as she celebrates her 50^th anniversary at Animal Friends.

From the organization’s humble beginnings in the Strip District to our state-of-the-art facility in Ohio Township, Ms. Houston has seen a lot of changes over the past half-century, but one thing has remained constant—her deep and abiding dedication to the comfort and well-being of the homeless animals in our care. On what Allegheny County is proclaiming “Eula Houston Day,” her friends at Animal Friends are honoring Ms. Houston with a dessert reception, a vacation in New York City to see The Color Purple, and a party with friends old and new. 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Animal Friends on Camp Horne Road. RSVP: 412-847-7029.

A new kind of film office?

Local film industry heavy hitters propose changes at the Pittsburgh Film Office. Keezer's kiester kaput?

Dish received the following letter, addressed to County Honcho Dan Onorato, Mayor O'Connor, and cc'd to Governor Rendell. It is signed by casting folks, producers, actors, and myriad other film folk. We'll let the thing speak for  itself.

July 24, 2006

The Honorable Dan Onorato, Chief Executive, Allegheny County

County Court House, Grant Street

Pittsburgh, PA 15219

The Honorable Bob O’Connor

Mayor, City of Pittsburgh

City-County Building

Pittsburgh, PA 15219

Dear Mr. Onorato and Mr. O’Connor:

It is with great consideration and a very strong sense of resolve that we, the community of filmmakers and film industry professionals in Western Pennsylvania, call on you to join us in support of a bold new approach to nurturing film production in Western Pennsylvania.

As you can see from the weight and volume of the undersigned, we comprehensively represent the most significant local stakeholders in this matter. But if that were not enough, you will find here endorsements from some of the most powerful interests in Hollywood as well. Collectively, unanimously and with a clear sense of purpose, we call on you to support the creation of a new kind of film office that will represent the best interests of the citizens of Western Pennsylvania. This will most likely require that public money be redirected from the current Film Office and towards our new, comprehensive initiative.

In other words, as we propose a fresh and effective direction for this economic development program, we simultaneously state our complete and total lack of confidence in the Pittsburgh Film Office to fulfill its mission and its purpose. It lacks any ability whatsoever to represent the best interests of the citizens in this region.

We ask that you support us locally, and in the Governor’s office, so that our positive call for a new and effective organization can be supported with public funding to accomplish that which is now hardly being accomplished at all. There are a number of qualified non-profits in place that stand by ready to house this new program, a program that will clearly serve a broader set of interests and return more money to this region.

We also propose a more representative governance structure and an organization that not only courts the business of Hollywood, but proactively nurtures the local, indigenous film community that already exists, so that they are not forever dependent on the vain whims of outside interests.

The film industry is speaking out with a single voice to ask that public support be redirected to a new entity that better serves the community, the field, and the international reputation of Western Pennsylvania. Respectfully, we call on you to join us in our endeavor.

Sincerely,

Charlie Byrnes, International Representative, Teamsters

Eric Gold, Producer, Manager

Patricia Buckley, Casting Assistant

Robert Buncher, President of IATSE, Local 480

Diane Collins, Costume Designer/Wardrobe Supervisor

David Conrad, Actor, Filmmaker

Bruce Crocker, Missus and Trixie Films

Midian Crosby, Special Effects and Make-up

Laura Davis, Producer/Steeltown Advisor

Kent Edwards, Former Board Member for PFO/Board Member of Pgh Filmmakers

John Haer, Director of AFTRA

Charlie Humphry, Executive Director of Pgh Filmmkaers

Ellen Kander, Co founder Steeltown Entertainment

Ken Kellers, Leadman

Canice Kennedy, Casting Director

Chris Lacey, AFTRA

Amy Lamb, Executive Producer of Lumiere Films

Maxine Lapidus, Executive Producer

Amy Marasalisa, Actor/Producer

Melissa Martin, Missus and Trixie Films

Crispin May, Camera Assistant

Catherine McConnell, Former Board member for PFO

Terri Minsky, Writer/Producer

Eugene Pile, Construction Coordinator

Richard Rauh, Prof. of Film at Point Park College/Actor

Greg Rempel, Writer/Director, Company X Entertainment

Joey Rocket, Graphic Artist/Photographer, Specter Studio

Cameron Romero, President of Batpack Studios/Director

Marty Schiff, Producer/Executive Director

Janet Smith, Producer, Trifocal State Theatre, Center of the Arts

Marlene Speranza, Costumer, CMU Costume Shop

Mamie Kay Stein, Props and Set Dresser and Buyer

William Strickland Jr. , President and CEO of Bidwell, Training Center and Manchester Craftsman’s Guild

Jamie Widdoes, Director

Michael Zinobile, Grip

Andrea Davis, Steeltown Entertainment

Todd Eckert, Director/Producer

Adrienne Wehr, Missus & Trixie Films

Diana Stoughton, IATSE Local 489

Sally Lapiduss, Producer/Writer, Los Angeles

Cc: Governor Rendell

Cc: Governor Rendell

Of course this means Warhol...

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.

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.”

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.

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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.

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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:

“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.

Of course this means Warhol...

Pucker up.

Each new Rolling Stones tour invariably renews the myth that Andy Warhol designed the band’s lips-and-tongue logo. He didn’t. According to Mick Jagger, John Pasch did, and it appears to be Mr. Pasch’s sole lasting contribution to pop culture. Perhaps because it’s such an obvious rip-off of R. Crumb and other underground aesthetes (though Keith Richards mused that the inspiration was the Indian goddess Khali). An academic paper entitled “Not Just Another Mouth: Mick Jagger and the Big Red Lips” was presented in April at the 2005 Experience Music Project Pop Conference; a synopsis of the lecture at the conference’s website furthers the Warhol myth.

Warhol’s actual work for the Stones included the LP covers for Sticky Fingers and Love You Live.  Sticky Fingers, which routinely gets cited as one of the greatest record covers ever, was actually designed by Craig Braun, based on Warhol’s concept and photography. The “package” in this immortal packaging is rumored to belong not to Mick Jagger (known more for face than crotch) but to the Factory’s own Joe Dallesandro. Love You Live, both cover and album, are much less memorable, and represent the last attempt by any artist to present Jagger’s mouth as anything remotely sexual or alluring. ...

In other pop (not pop art) news, I had the honor to interview Beach Boys buddah Brian Wilson last month when his Smile tour visited Connecticut. Velvet Underground junkie that I am, I asked him why we always read about how Smile was born out of a jealousy of the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper album. Did Wilson have any inkling of the revolutions being wrought on the other coast of his own country? Had he not heard the Velvet Underground, whose debut album was released at the outset of the so-called Summer of Love? “No,” he told me flatly in his trademark understatement, “I didn’t know about them.” This obliviousness was seconded by Wilson’s more articulate collaborator Van Dyke Parks, who suggested that Wilson was too busy making his own music to be influenced by anyone else’s. But still….!

Old beer is good beer

Historically, Sam's the man.

A yellowed document hangs above the door inside Caruso's Beer Distributors. It's protected by a frame but 70 years have taken their toll. Sam Caruso can see it every day (except Sundays, of course. This is Pennsylvania) from his vantage point behind the small glass-enclosed vestibule where he stands and rings up thirsty customers.

Caruso owns one of the oldest (perhaps the oldest) known continually-operating beer distributing businesses in the region. The license was issued in1933 to his father who owned a grocery store just a few doors down from Caruso's current location on North Taylor in the historic Mexican War Streets on the North Side.

"My dad was down on Monterey and North Taylor and ran a grocery store with my mother before 1933," said Caruso, darting to and from his walk-in cooler. "He later decided to apply for license to sell beer. At that time you could sell beer at a market."

In 1950, Caruso, Sr. moved to Resaca and North Taylor and stopped selling groceries and strictly sold beer. In time father and son ran the shop. Home deliveries (which cost a quarter) and wholesale accounts made up a large portion of the business. At one time the Carusos owned 4 trucks and had 9 employees. In 1968, Caruso Beer moved to its current location and the business flourished.

"In the 1970s we had about 25 bar and restaurant accounts, with at least 10 of them along Federal Street. We sold 300 to 400 cases a week to the Shamrock Inn [on Western Avenue]." But toward the end of the decade times got rough. "With the steel mills closing and reduction of public transportation, the shot & a beer blue collars drifted away. The culture changed."

And so did the Mexican War Streets. Good for the neighborhood, but not always good for Caruso.

He explained that shortly after the Mexican War Streets gained historical status in 1979, a neighbor used political connections to force Caruso out of a parking lot he owned on a nearby street. "The neighbor didn't like looking at beer trucks. He knew somebody on the city council and our occupancy permit was denied." Caruso had nowhere to park. He fought a good fight and still has a stuffed accordion folder to prove it. Eventually inflated gas prices got the better of him and the trucks were sold.

Caruso isn't bitter about the neighbor with connections. "We're here and he's not."

In 2003, Caruso had another encounter with historical buffs. He installed a pop machine on the side of his property next to the building. He received notice that the machine violated "historical review approval" and was forced to remove it.

Yet Caruso has persevered. When the National Guard was called into Manchester during the neighborhoods violent '60s Caruso stayed put. There were times he thought of leaving the neighborhood but "things got better."

"Through it all I never had any trouble from customers. If they go to the impound to get their cars they're miserable. Here they're getting something they like."

Just as he said that, the door alarm rings signaling a customer is waiting. Sam spots the woman and whispers, "Watch this she's been coming in for years." They haggle, tease each other and finally come to an agreement.

"I know I'm difficult," yelled the woman.

"Yeah, that's why I still love ya," shouts Caruso.

Now that's historical.

Caruso Beer Distributors, 307 N. Taylor Ave., North Side, 412-321-1800. Hours: Tues.-Sat. 2 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Photos: 1933 license; Sam Caruso; family photos; 1968 walk-in cooler

Drawn Out

Meet three of Pittsburgh's unsung heroes. They want to meet you.

"Big Nick" is burly, brawny and beefy. In his rolled up sleeves, jaunty cap and Billy club shaped boots, Big Nick is possibly the best casually dressed 11th letter of the alphabet. And the most visible. He is the overalled Charles Atlas of Parkway West.

The mighty man known as Nick signed a modeling contract for the Knickerbocker Russell construction company about 50 years. Just after WWII, Big Nick was the spokesman for the long gone  Knickerbocker Company, which manufactured portable construction site heaters. According to Knickerbocker Russell service manager Mike Montani, owner Russell Keith, 83, drove around McKee's Rocks in an old station wagon selling the portable heaters. After Knickerbocker folded, Keith opened Knickerbocker Russell and saved Big Nick from extinction.

(Big Nick is not known to have an affiliation with the Village People, however if you find yourself singing "The gay K K took my baby away" you are not alone.)

"A. Ward" is a happy fellow. Being a loving cup, you'll have that.

Mr. Ward welcomes customers to the Pittsburgh Trophy Company on Penn. Avenue in the Strip. Joe Cioffe drew him in the summer of 1993 when he worked part-time. Cioffe went on to become an illustrator for Disney. PTC was founded in 1974 by Bob and Mary Agnes Nellis and remains family owned.

A. Ward would be on the pep squad.

Like Big Nick, "Thriftee" also fancies the letter K. The man fashioned out of pipes represents Keystone Plumbing on Brighton Road on the North Side as well as other locations. His headwear might have been the inspiration for the DEVO energy dome. A web search found Thriftee on a 1954 Keystone ad.

Thriftee models sweater vests in his spare time. It's cold being a pipe.

-Mrs. Dish

Slow cookin' slow down

Depending on which direction the wind blows on the Central North Side, nosy neighbors breath in the meaty perfume of either Wilson's B-B-Q or Doug's Market.

After this Saturday, the wind belongs to Wilson's.

Please read update at the end of this post!

Carl, Doug's Barbecue Maestro, will no longer send up smoke signals to the neighborhood's hungry. After 8 years, the familiar face behind the sidewalk grill on the corner of Arch and Sampsonia streets will turn his last rib and braise his last chicken.

Saturday's sidewalk cookout finale is the first sign of change on the horizon for Doug's Market, a popular mom & pop that's been a food market since 1895. Owner Doug Nimmo is scaling back the food portion of the business in an effort to, as he puts it, reclaim his sanity.

"After working 70 hours a week for 10 years, I need to get my life back," said Nimmo. "I need to step back and see what the future holds for me."

Stepping back also means phasing out the sale of fresh meats. Nimmo, formerly a butcher in Fox Chapel, provided neighbors with myriad cuts of meat. In another month or so, Central North Side carnivores will have to go elsewhere. Many other provisions will still be available.

"This community has always supported the store," said Nimmo. "I thank everyone. But I really need to slow down."

Saturday's last BBQ will be, as always, from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Due to vacationing staff, Nimmo is postponing the final cookout until Aug. 5. Same time.

Quack Us Up

Chris D'Addario, Pittsburgh Dish's darling neighbor and co-owner of Just Ducky Tours, recently posed for an ad for Eyetique, a boutique for swank eyewear. The ad can be found (and subsequently cut out and placed on either fridge door or dartboard) on page 17 of this week's City Paper.

We'd like to hear from you, by way of a caption contest, why you think Chris looks so darn happy. What's happening off camera that might cause such a grin? Is it the duck on his shoulder or voices in his head that tickles him so?

Please submit your caption in comments. He's our pal so be nice. Otherwise we'll have to hunt you down and run you over in a 10-ton bright orange amphibious war vehicle. The winner will receive nothing. And like it.

Ad Photograher: Michael Sahaida

Cleavers & Cleavage: A Chef Uncovered

Olga Watkins stands in the tiny kitchen at the Monterey Pub effortlessly slicing strawberries as if she's hosting a casual soiree for five friends. The casual observer would have no inkling that she's about feed upward of 250 customers.

"Last night we got slammed," Watkins smiles. "But I guess I'm used to it."

Considering she's cooked on a Navy base, yeah, she's accustomed to pressure. And considering she's performed musically almost all of her life, yeah, she can prepare 50 New York strips, 30 servings of salmon and 40 orders of crab legs. Most of us would break out in flop sweat arranging a cheese & crackers platter.

Many ingredients go into Watkins personal pot. She stirs in a lifetime of musical talent and kitchen know-how. She tosses in a longtime love affair with cooking. Add many dashes of humor and you've got all that is Olga, the self-described "Diva, Bombshell, Kitchen Goddess & Vocalist Extraordinaire." She's also not shy about proclaiming that the stove isn't the only rack she enjoys flaunting (see photo).

Nothing in Watkin's life simmers on the back burner. Naps are required after hearing her frantic schedule. A typical day might have Watkins doing a live (singing!) chef demo in the morning at Hillmon Appliance in Cranberry Township then changing out of an apron into a sultry frock and performing with Olga's Soul Kitchen, her blues jazz and soul ensemble, at the Crawford Grill in Station Square. She's also fits in time for her gig as interim chef at the Monterey Pub. Oh yes, and she a mom to daughter Ella. Oh and a caterer. And right, a party planner.

Phew.

Classically trained in music and vocals (we're talking opera and violin, honey), Watkins learned to cook before she could read. While most American kids ate burgers and fries, Watkins family were creating multicultural feasts. Her parents, both ministers, lived in a large parsonage and sponsored families and was exposed to international cooking before she was tall enough to reach the cookie jar. "We hosted families from all over--Malaysia, Thailand, and Uganda--and we all cooked together." She's taken that self-taught skills into many area restaurants.

Now she shares her own kitchen with Ella, who seems to have inherited her mom's singing skills (view "Diva Jr.'s" rendition of the Alphabet Song on Watkins website www.olgawatkins.com). The next Kitchen Goddesses is already in training.

--Colleen Van Tassell

Check out Watkins' online calendar for her upcoming projects which include cooking classes at Whole Foods Market in Pittsburgh and In the Kitchen in Wexford as well as a demonstration series for health fairs in the greater Pittsburgh area. On June 10 catch Watkins band on the KDKA Morning Show from 8 to 9 a.m.

(photos: slasher, masher, billboard, cover girl)

Nuts to You North Side

Squirrels. Morning, day, night, afternoon: squirrels, squirrels, squirrels. And then more squirrels. Our kingdom for a chipmunk.

Not long ago, as neighbor was working on his North Side rooftop deck, one of the little bastards pelted him with nuts. The Cy Young of squirrels sat laughing atop a branch of the mighty oak. Smug little nutmonger. At Monterey Pub, our favored Mexican War Streets watering hole, no one spoke of business, sports or art. Just squirrels. We thought it was just us.

The main power line that spans our alley is their HOV lane. Darting hither and yon, they run roughshod. To the fence. On the fence. Over the fence. And back to from whence they came. The circuit is never broken. Through West Park, the dogs chase them, to no avail. Wily, swift bastards. Frustrated hounds.

The day will come. Oh, it will. They shall be our masters.

Their rapidly advancing civilization causes us to fret. Just the other day, one, we'll call him Vance, donned a hardhat and began to carve rather intricate figures into the foundation of our neighbor's home. We're assuming he and his brethren have developed some primitive form of hieroglyphics. We yearn for a Rosetta Stone to make sense of Vance's mad engravings.

We firmly believe that when a translation is made, it shall read: "Your nuts or your life, primate. Your nuts or your life."

(photo: At a North Side backyard near you: Leo Gorcey stars as Terence Aloysius 'Slip' Mahoney in Trouble Makers.)

Super-sized Small Fries

Behind a truckbed full of 8 ft. long timbers two little voices came out of nowhere, "Can we help, mister, can we help?" Naturally, we grown-ups said no, followed by the grown-up reply, "You're too little."

"Please, we're not looking for money," begged the tykes. "We really wanna help."

The grown-ups agreed and placed a long, heavy 3x5x8 timber onto their four little arms and the two carried the planks into the backyard of a North Side neighbor. Therreus and Trey assisted in a lumber-intensive job and their little faces beamed with pride.

"Can we come back and help out do some more stuff? the half-pints asked. "Yes," we said. "How about you come back and help pick up some litter from the street?" "Ok, ok, we'll come back." Before leaving they offered to share their cache of 100 gumballs. "We ate 3 but we have 97 left."

They returned. And brought help.

Turns out Therreus is a triplet and brought along his two brothers, Thaddeus and Darius. Trey, the oldest of the troupe (second grade) supervised his younger cousins and made sure his clean-up crew adhered to the rules--no bad words, no shouting, no fighting. In ten minutes one area of the street was free of candy wrappers, newspapers and plastic bottles. Between bouts of bickering the four shared their interests. All attend MLK Elementary School and they enjoy art, music, gym, science and library.

"I like homework better than classwork" said Trey. "But classwork is fun I guess."

For their efforts they received $5. "Wow, thanks missus!" they yelled (one gave a hug) and headed down the street to the Family Dollar store.

The North Side has an unsavory reputation for open-air drug trafficking and drug-related shootings. Maybe, just maybe these four kids will make gumballs the new drug of choice.

(Photo: front to back: Thaddeus, Darius, Therreus and Trey)

Hoe Down

Free Beer and Barbecue to Benefit the Green Millennium Children's Garden

1313 Sherman Ave., North Side

Saturday, May 28

4 p.m.--Keg tapped

4 p.m.-6 p.m--Imbibe and work

6 p.m.-7 p.m.--Barbeque

Join in a beer blast, er, garden party to help Laura Winter get the Green Millennium Children's Garden off (in?) the ground. Winter, a Penn State master gardener, has developed a kid's garden across the street from from Old Allegheny Gardens described by the Post-Gazette as "arguably the best community garden in the city." Each week volunteers worked side by side with children and adults planting marigolds in cinder blocks, turning soil, burying bulbs and harvesting juicy red tomatoes. Green thumbs and black thumbs are always welcome. It's good dirty fun.

(photos: Children's garden (above); Old Allegheny Gardens)

They Stoop and Conquer

Grant Street may be the official headquarters of Pittsburgh city government, but the real city council sits on the corner of Monterey Street and Sampsonia Way in the Mexican War Streets on the North Side.

Meet the mayor, Mr. Diggs. Mr. Diggs has been sitting astoop longer than memory serves. The 79-year-old retired railroad worker is always flanked by his councilmen, Larry, Eric and Bobby.

Eric, the junior councilman who works at Allegheny General Hospital, defers to his elders on matters of great import such as the vicissitudes of Young and the Restless. See, the council doesn't make it to their outdoor chambers until their "stories" conclude.

In addition to regular updates regarding the world of daytime soap operas, council weighs in on topics such as local politics, world events, youthful indiscretions and buffets.

Council invariably seeks out shrimp. And plenty of it.

Council enjoys the type of place where, as Larry puts it, you have to unbutton the top button of your pants before you go in. His bon mot resulted in uproarious cackles from the mayor on down the line. Mayor Diggs expressed his preference for fish and a big glass of buttermilk from Market Square's Original Oyster House.

Giggles and guffaws can be heard blocks away. Ten girls at a slumber party have nothing on these honorable gents. Their presence, as reliable as Old Faithful, though a bit noisier is a comfort to the populace. Larry says the group not only consists of the mayor and council, "we're the police, too."

As they lounge on their administrative derrieres, protected from the hard stoop by cushions, they wave to all who pass by. "Alright, alright" Mr. Diggs says to friends and neighbors somewhere upward of 50 times a day.

Reflecting on the council's role in the community, Larry sums it up thusly, "We know all. We see all." And so they do.

Tom Murphy and his cohorts have nothing on this crew.

(Photo: (l to r) Larry, Eric, Mayor Diggs and Bobby)