The tri-state’s largest summertime event, EQT Pittsburgh Three Rivers Regatta, will commemorate its 35th anniversary year with five days of world-class entertainment featuring more power, more pyro, and more fun for the entire family… ALL FREE!
The nation’s largest inland regatta will run June 30 through July 4 complete with some first-time signature acts and activities including a nightly 30-minute laser spectacular in Point State Park, a 40’ x 100’ artificial ice skating rink…and add a new class of motorsport racing—the v-hulled, offshore powerboats of the P-1 Superstock series.
The event will also mark the return of world champion sand sculptor, Thomas Koet of Sandsational who, once again, will turn 150 tons of sand into a grand and gargantuan masterpiece of art.
For the third consecutive year, Regatta will host the F-2 and F-3 North American Power Boat Championships and, of course, as the city’s official Fourth of July celebration, the event will culminate with an “anniversary special” July 4 fireworks show by New Castle –based Pyrotecnico.
Plan now…to join the region’s most anticipated summer festival. More details coming soon. For continual updates about the event, visit www.threeriversregatta.net

Photo by Archie Carpenter

When I was in college, I had a creative writing class.  It was a small class, less than 20 of us, and we met in one of the cool nationality rooms at Pitt.  The professor’s last name was Hall, and I enjoyed her and the class tremendously.  I don’t claim to have had a special connection with her, but I can tell you that she made me feel special.  She always had not only good things to say about my writing, but she had encouraging things to say.

Sure, maybe that was just her style, and she told everyone that they should submit writing to contests.  Maybe she suggested everyone contact the local radio station, WYEP, to fill a spot reading their poetry.  All I know is that she gave me confidence in my work to do those things because she convinced me she believed in me, so why shouldn’t I believe in myself?  One thing stands out though.  When she opened up a Red Rose Tea box, and picked out the glazed ceramic animal figures, I doubt she thought of every student she had.  As she picked up a peregrine falcon piece, she remembered a short story I wrote that included the falcons.  She gave me that figurine at the end of the semester and I still have it and remember what it symbolizes.  It might have been something simple and small to her, but beyond the fact that I already enjoyed collecting the figures, I was filled with joy to be receiving something back.  She didn’t just read my short story, she remembered it enough to be inspired.  THAT is what I would live for as a writer.  Affecting people by simply expressing my thoughts would fill me with such life.

I attribute that class to a lot of my desire to write, or even blog at all.  I never won any of those contests.  WYEP said they wanted established poets who were published.  For some reason though, none of that felt like rejection.  It felt like satisfaction.  Sometimes, I yearn for that unique feeling.  To be so filled with joy, that rejection rings in a sense of completion rather than discouragement.

I once set out to create a model of Pittsburgh out of bricks.  It didn’t turn out well.  Scale is a hard thing to maintain when constricted to the shapes of LEGO bricks.  So, the mini-series was born.  As I’m inspired, or as requested, I’ll set out to recreate individual buildings and landmarks.  Here’s what I got so far:

The Civic Arena:

The US Steel Tower:

The Cathedral of Learning:

I’ll probably set out to create a “larger scale” version of the cathedral of learning, but I just couldn’t resist this one.

a nice write up in the Wall Street Journal on how houses in the Pittsburgh area keep increasing in value even through the housing bubble pop.  It even goes into some specific houses and neighborhoods around the city.  It’s a great place and time to buy… *cough* *cough*
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303657404576363150295506130.html?mod=WSJ_RealEstate_LeftTopNews

Pittsburgh is confirmed as the filming location for the new batman movie!  I’m stoked.  This is one of the biggest movies to be filmed in Pittsburgh for a long time.  I’m also noticing that Anne Hathaway is slated to be in the movie…I wonder what that means for Kallie…people are going to be extra jumpy about sightings.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11095/1137149-348.stm

Alright, this memory is going to be a little graphic, but i have to live with it, so I’m going to share it. With an opening sentence like that, how could you not read more?

So while I was at pitt, I lived in Lothrop Hall. Lothrop Hall had disgusting bathrooms and the stalls did not offer much for privacy. If I remember correctly, it may have even only been a sheet in front of you. Either way, it wasn’t be best place for a #2. The Cathedral of Learning however, had an awesome 2nd story bathroom. It was very hard to get to, so it made it typically pretty sanitary, but it also had the longest hallway of stalls that I think I’ve ever come across. There must have been 15 stalls on either side. You don’t want to pick the close ones, because those are for people that had emergencies, and you don’t pick the ones all the way at the end, because that’s too obvious and frequented. Somewhere in the middle though, you find the perfect balance of cleanliness and privacy. The problem is, others, 1 gentlemen in particular, thought the same thing I did.

So I sitting in one of the right side stalls, doing my thang. Every once in a while, someone will walk by, but that doesn’t bother me. It’s only when a dude takes the stall directly across from me that I’m a little perturbed. I hear some strange noises. I peer through the crack in my door to see what’s up. This skinny black dude is sitting on the toilet, with the door open, stroking his wookie. WTF. I don’t know what his logic was with the door, but when he’d hear someone coming through, he’d shut it, at least enough to prevent seeing what he was doing, but then he’d open it back up again.

I tried to ignore it. I don’t know what triggered it, maybe he didn’t see me at first, but he got up and came over to my door and knocked on it. I didn’t respond and kept my head down. He was peaking through the cracks at me and I think he mumbled something, but I have no idea what. I think he was crazy. After perhaps a second knock, he retreated back to his stall, I assume to continue his work.

What he probably didn’t realize was the implications of his actions. He’s stuck with me now. There’s no way I’m leaving the security of my stall. I have my cell phone and my vocal chords if he tries anything. I’m there for the duration.

I have no idea if he finished his deed or not, but he did end up leaving after a while. I gave it a good buffer time before I left. I thought he might be waiting for me outside, so I chose a public and quick exit.

I never returned to those stalls, I think. If I did, I remember thinking to never go back during that same time frame. Too much privacy has tainted it.

Pittsburgh Housing Authority announced their plan to demolish Addison Terrace in the Hill District. If this goes through, it will only leave the Bedford Dwellings as the last remaining barracks style housing projects in the Hill District. For those of you not familiar with the Hill but hear about shootings and crime, 99.9% of all shootings occur on Chauncey or Bentley Drive. Chauncey (Bedford Dwellings) is in the middle of the hill, along Bedford Avenue, and Bentley (Addison Terrace) runs around Elmore Square, between uptown and oakland. It’s across Kirkpatrick Street from the Oak Hill apartment community. Addison Terrace is the one that you can see from my house, so getting that area cleaned up and turned to a positive community would be great for the Hill.

read more : http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10322/1104357-100.stm

I was staying in a hotel with Kallie’s family, and I went over to the other room where everyone was.  As soon as I walked through the door, Wally prompted me to answer this question.  I paused, half defeated.  I thought I was in an unfair position due to my freshman dorm experience at Pitt.  You see, in Lothrop Hall, it’s all singles, and each room has a sink in it.  Being an introvert, prone to a crazy sleep schedule, and just general laziness, it’s only a matter of time before you cave and pee in the sink.  It’s straight up behaviorism psychology.  So yes, I’ve urinated in a sink, and I bet at least 90% of men who lived in Lothrop did as well.

Feel free to tell your stories or reasons below!

Here’s an update on some Hill District projects:

YMCA: This is going in 2 blocks from my house on Centre Avenue. It is currently slated for an early 2012 completion. Should be awesome to have an indoor basketball court and pool so close! Also, it’ll be one of the city’s largest green certified buildings. Post-Gazette

Grocery Store: Shop ‘n Save has committed to putting in a full service store (FINALLY!). It is scheduled to be completed in November of 2011. This is going to be 3 blocks from my house. Post-Gazette

Consol Energy Center: The new home of the Pens will be opening with Paul McCartney on August 15th. On my walk to work, it’s looking just about done from the outside. still some paint, shrubs, and lights to finish though. It’s on its way to being the highest LEED certified sports center in the nation. http://www.consolenergycenter.com/

Connelley School: At the upper corner of the Mellon Arena’s top parking lot, there’s this old school that has been closed due to asbestos. Now, there’s money to convert it into a place for green start ups and research facility for Pittsburgh Green Innovators. Seems like a pretty cool thing.Post-Gazette

Pharmacy: Duquesne has announced they’d open a pharmacy in the Hill. I’m not sure exactly which store front it’s going in, perhaps the old Carnegie Library Space? That might be too large though. It is slated for later this year. >Post-Gazette

Cambria suites Hotel: The hotel in between the Washington Plaza apartments and Consol Energy Center is close to being structurally done. It has all the blocks in place, now just time to brick it up and put some windows in and finish the interior. Looks like it will open in December 2010. More & pictures

Kaufmann Auditorium: Right next to the Hill House, they’re making a bunch of modernizations and upgrades to this auditorium. Plans also include an outdoor amphitheater. link

Dinwiddie Street: Not sure what all is included here, but they are tearing down a bunch of abandoned houses and blight. I think they plan to build new houses, but maybe it will be apartments. I’m watching the HDCG for updates.

So, i’ll give you the play-by-play of this weekend. tok off friday so i could be well rested, headed out about noon, and not a mile down the road i hear this radio commercial for southwest airlines. it says “the next time you are driving from pittsburgh to philly, fly southwest for only $29″ I was like, crap, that’s as much as i am going to pay for gas! add on a $10 toll, wear and tear on the car, and factor in the ~5 hour drive, and jeez, why i am driving??? so next time, i’ll be flying. So i got out there, went out ot eat with mike (serah’s fiancee) and then we headed off to the mike doughty concert. Good show, didn’t play requests like he did last year, but still good, he’s got a record deal, so i understand. Didn’t get to talk to him at all though. We just left and headed down to DC to pick up Serah.

Saturday morning we headed back into Philly to check on the Salvador Dali exhibit at the Philidelphia museum of art. Mike and I had both wanted to see it, but realized this week they have a limited number of tickets, and it was sold out for all weekends. So we were going knowing that the exhibit was sold out, but where there is a will, there is a way. While we were walking to the museum, mike called the place and asked if there was anyway to get tickets, and they said no. we were a little disuaded, but i decided that i just wanted to talk to someone in person about it. so we go in, go up to the counter and i tell the lady i just drove in from pittsburgh to find out that the exhibit is selling tickets and are sold out, and ask if there is any way to see it. She said no. I asked if we came back at a later time in the day, when it might be less busy if we could get in, she said no. I asked if we became members, if we could get in, and she said yes. so the tickets for the exhibit were normally $20, and student memberships were $35/year and regular memberships were $55 a year. After i asked her that, she said, “oh, and i do have this one ticket here” and she pulled out a ticket with the name of some guy from seattle who apparently couldn’t make it out. So mike grabbed that one for $20 since he didnt have a student ID and serah and i were going to become members. She has her expired Penn State ID, but they didnt seem to care. And i didnt have my Pitt ID. I gave them my @pitt.edu email address and she said that wasn’t enough, and then i asked if i could fax a copy in when i got home. She agreed and started to fill out my registration. Halfway through, she said to forget about faxing in my ID, since they would know she gave me the membership without proof if ID. So it really wasn’t all that much trouble to get in to see it at all, despite all the signs and warnings that tickets were sold out. I don’t really see myself going back more than once to use the membership, but still cool. And the exhibit was great. so after that we had lunch/dinner at hard rock cafe and had the pickle incident (read post below). came home sunday morning to see my mom, then back up at the apartment and here i am.

not too much going on this week, gotta get Robert Morris in shape, they’re trying to tell me that they didnt get any of my transcripts when i think they told me before they had all 3, my mother taking care of sending one of them. So they are on crack and i am not getting a very good impression of their advisory system already. But they should be better than pitt. that’s pretty much it for me, with some cleaning thrown in there as well as getting the next version of the dragon game ready for release this weekend. should be interesting.