Clean Energy for America - Strip District

Here are some of the Shepard Fairey posters in the Strip District. I have others from other places in town, including the big installation across the street from the Andy Warhol museum, bu they're all trapped on my computer at home (shhh...I'm throwing this post up from work right now). I'll post those later.

Penn Ave Shepard Fairey mural update

I rode through downtown on my way to work to see the finished Shepard Fairey mural at Penn Avenue. I couldn't stay to see it complete yesterday, as I was already late to meet Bethany, Silas, and a friend for a hike at Frick Park. Here is a photo of the piece.

Shepard Fairey murals in Pittsburgh

Shepard Fairey is in town for the unveiling of a piece of work (Clean Energy for America) this weekend as part of a Netroots Nation event. He is, of course, to date probably best known for his Obama "HOPE" poster. A number of murals are going up around Pittsburgh.

I ran across one going up in an alley off Penn Blvd between 8th and 9th (I think) and watched them work for a while. Then I rode over to the one at 1st and Wood St, as shown below. I think this is a very exciting series of events for Pittsburgh. I'd like to see the mainstream media pick up some of the issues and talk about them. We'll see.

I'd love to go to the Clean Energy for America unveiling, but I'll be watching the Decemberists play at the Byham Theater. It's tough to have such difficult choices.

Here are a few links discussing the murals, the event, and the organizations.

• http://bittersweetharvest.blogspot.com/2009/08/la-street-art-in-pittsburgh.html
• http://iheartpgh.com/2009/08/12/party-to-celebrate-shepard-faireys-clean-energy-for-america-installation/
• http://www.netrootsnation.org/
• http://obeygiant.com/

Oakland runabout

Silas and I went on a nice hour-long run around Oakland today. We parked by the Cathedral of Learning (on the University of Pittsburgh campus) and ran over to the Allegheny County Soldier's Memorial, also known as the Soldiers and Sailors National Memorial.

There, Silas found the propeller of a WWII torpedo highly fascinating.

Then we ran over the bridge over Panther Hollow and looked at the steam plant and the Carnegie Mellon University building in the background.

From the next bridge, we watched the sun start setting over the city.

We did some loops through Schenley Park and popped back out with a nice evening view of the building at CMU we looked at before, but this time, there is a handsome parking lot in the foreground.

Running behind the Carnegie Museum of Art, we spent a little time in their open-air art courtyard and gawked at the waterfall.


Opposite the waterfall are the stairs from the lobby up to the galleries.


Just after this point, Bethany called and said she was on her way home. We didn't beat her there, nor have dinner ready. That's really my fault for forgetting to buy rice noodles at one of the Asian stores in the Strip District during my lunch break at work. It was a beautiful night for a run and well worth the consequences of eating at Ritter's Diner instead of my home-cooking.

Warhol Museum

Silas and I met up with some friends from work to spend a little time at the Andy Warhol Museum on Friday. Bethany was at a yoga teacher event at the studio she at, so it was another nice boys night out.

We all thought the Silver Clouds installation would be really fun to watch Silas take in. However, I think he thinks much in this world is pretty crazy and mylar balloons aren't that much more clever than all the other great things he sees every day. He was pretty neutral about it all. Evidently, he's not developed such rigid expectations for the world that it was all that remarkable. He didn't not enjoy it, but it didn't elicit much of an emotional response.


He was particularly fond of Debbie Harry.

And staring at a film of a three-foot eyeball proved pretty interesting for him.


He was also very curious about Mick Jagger flailing around wearing eye makeup in a some Rollings Stones concert footage from the mid-1970's. Although, it's possible he was fascinated by the cathode ray tube used to play the film. He'd probably not seen a CRT before.

Beauty in the mundane

At the Korean War memorial, Silas found the broken electrical box much more interesting. He knew the two were supposed to be connected, but couldn't figure out how to get them together.

Similarly, he found the sprinkler head and the surrounding wood chip mulch fascinating, completely ignoring the flowering tree sculpture in a courtyard in the Cultural District. The trees are well made and sort of interesting to look at in the dead of winter. However in the summer, it's a little sad to see man-made trees when real plants have been flowering like mad for the past few months. Maybe if I worked downtown, the perpetual blooms would brighten my mood on the overcast and rainy days, and I'd be more appreciative. The ivy is real, I think.

Civil engineers

I wonder if they're thinking, "wow, I wonder how beautiful this area was before our kind concreted it all over with roads, buildings, and parking lots." Was it then that the wicked witch of progress came and froze them where they stood as penance for such anarchist thoughts...?

Pittsburgh robot

We visited the robot down by the Allegheny River. He's got parts made of bridges and is Pittsburgh yellow. Beyond that, I'm not entirely sure what the inspiration is. We do have a robotics lab and Carnegie Mellon University. Perhaps that's it.

I love in the picture above that there is a bird perched on the robot's bridge head.

I have heard that the yellow used to paint the bridges over the Allegheny River in Pittsburgh is a specific yellow and that perhaps it's been trademarked. I can't find anything about it on wikipedia nor from a quick internet search. So, I'm just spreading unsubstantiated rumors here...

More from yesterday's art stroll with Silas

After we strolled around the North Side riverfront for a while and then over to the Warhol Museum to find it was closed, we wandered over the Warhol Bridge into downtown. There is a courtyard in the Cultural District with a water feature and these crazy eye benches. There are also chessboards. The guy in the hat was playing air drums for a long time and then asked the monk if he wanted to play chess. I don't think they played much chess. From the bits of conversation I overheard, it was a pretty metaphysically heavy discussion...


The walk back to the car provided a nice parting view of the city on a fine evening.

North Side mosaic sculpture

Silas and I admired some art during our travels along the river. These mosaics are from a sculpture near PNC Park (where the Pittsburgh Pirates play) between the Clemente and Warhol bridges on the North Side.

Thomas Edison bike tricks

The father of the light bulb and other inventions was also into film and perhaps an admirer of bicycles. He filmed a friend doing freestyle bike tricks. The landing at the end wasn't particularly elegant... Despite the comments, it looks like Edison did the filming, not the riding. Alas.

Mural and a Sunday ride

We had a nice brunch with friends on Sunday. Riding back toward Bloomfield with Maya and Ryder, I saw this interesting mural on an interesting building. It a much nicer experience than that corner would have been without the scenes painted on the plywood.

Art All Night

Art All Night was this past weekend. I'm finally getting around to posting a few pictures. The event is an annual art show where anybody can bring and show a single piece. It's held in the Lawrenceville neighborhood and is generally in a space that has been recently renovated and is hoping for some exposure.

It was pretty warm outside to start out with, but it was insane hot inside the warehouse.


Silas stopped to rehydrate.


This is Ryder's piece. It's a good work, but had a very unfortunate location. There was no light on it at all and a big beaming light just over and beyond it, so the contrast made it impossible to see any detail, let alone tell what the scene was. It was definitely in the top-tier of art by quality in the show. It's pretty sad he got such a bum draw on location.

15 years gone by

Kurt Cobain died 15 years ago. That's a long time.

Zen told me the news when I stopped in Jimmy John's to see him at his work that day in 1994. The only other musician I remember where I was when I heard was John Lennon. I was in the back seat of my parents' car, riding home from church. Cobain and Lennon.

His music reached me at the time. It was exactly what I wanted, needed, at the right time. There are other timeless classics of their respective eras in my life that I appreciate all the time, such as Led Zeppelin, the Cure, Modest Mouse, etc, but none hit me the same.

In any case, Pitchfork did a nice write up and linked to a collection of YouTube videos of diverse covers of Smells Like Teen Spirit. Take a look through the videos. They are great, every one in its own way. They are a testament to the power of the song and his being the voice of that time.

http://pitchfork.com/news/35054-kurt-cobain-rip-april-8-1994/

Irma Freeman Center

The building renovation for the new Irma Freeman Center for Imagination is progressing in Garfield/Bloomfield. I don't know much about it beyond the website and admiring the exterior work, but they have an interesting series of classes lined up for the summer. Their goal is to make art and sustainability accessible to the diverse community that lives in Garfield, Bloomfield, Friendship, and greater Pittsburgh.