First Steeler's Game

North Shore and Side were full of people tailgating, hawking tickets and parking spaces, and generally walking around in black and gold. I tried to take a few pics on my cell phone without being obvious.. :0)

GO STILLERS!

Finding Bulgaria in Pittsburgh (post 4)

On the Verizon building, there is a portal with a globe of the world rotating within. The point is that you can call anywhere in the world from Pittsburgh, I guess. Anyways, the boys took some time to find Bulgaria.

Bulgarians in Pittsburgh 3: PPG Building

first two pictures by Rado, he has a good eye for that sort of thing. then me playing with the reflections from the building...

Bulgarians in Pittsburgh, Pt. 2 The Point

Bulgarians in Pittsburgh

Pavel, Other Pavel, Joro, and Rado with Roberto Clemente

on Roberto Clemente Bridge

walking by the Allegheny River

Me and Rado pose for a picture

to the Point

I know I said I'd post about my trip to Bulgaria, and I still plan to, but here is Bulgaria's trip to me! haha. The brother of Rado's sister-in-law was in Redding, PA for training and came with two other Bulgarian coworkers to visit us for a few hours... We had a blast and tried to compact the surrouding area into a few hours with success. We left on a walk from N. Side and travelled by Pirates (PNC) Stadium, went across Roberto Clemente bridge, walked along the river to the point, went to PPG Square and Market Square, ate at Primantis (A Pittsburgh Original). Then we continued our walk across Smithfield St. Bridge to Station Square, rode the incline to Mt. Washington and enjoyed the view, and walked them back to their rental car before heading off to a concert in Highland Park. What a Pittsburgh day! If they get to come longer next time we'll show them more of our lovely city, but they were very impressed by the city and said they enjoyed it more than Philadelphia or New York. That's right folks! Pittsburgh rules.

LET'S GO PENGUINS! (Aviary Post 3)

Here is three month old Sidney. He is rooting for the Penguins and his namesake Sidney Crosby tonight, are you?

• Press Release on Sidney the African Penguin
• Eastern Conference Champion Hockey Team Pittsburgh Penguins

Aviary Post 2- Pigeons

On the way home from NYC back in January, I ran into the apparently now defunct "World of Pigeons." I knew that all pigeons and doves were of the same family, Columbidae, but I didn't realize how varied they were...truly a world of pigeons...until I went to the National Aviary in Pittsburgh yesterday...

Some of the Columbidae Family at the National Aviary:

• Nicobar Pigeon
• Pied Imperial Pigeon
• Victoria Crowned Pigeon
• Green-Naped Pheasant Pigeon
• Bartlett's Bleed Heart Dove
• Fruit Dove

Victoria Crowned Pigeon

fruit dove

Pittsburgh Aviary Post 1

This begins a series of posts based on my visit to the Pittsburgh Aviary yesterday (Friday May 30th). The following is a short video clip I took at the Free Flight Zone show of Max the Parakeet singing Happy Birthday. I wished I had turned the camera on sooner, because he just got done singing opera.

There is No Exit Strategy

It's not so much what it is, but what it is combined with when it is. I saw this on 5th ave in downtown Pittsburgh on April 3rd, 2008. The fifth anniversary of the war in Iraq was on March 20th, 2008. The facts are stated simply, you don't need to add shock and awe for it to be shocking.

Happy Anniversary
March 20
2003-2007
?

"Maybe a hundred years---would be fine with me" --Sen. John McCain

4,000 U.S. Military Dead
39,395 U.S. wounded

....what is best
Who's laughing now?

The placement on a marble building drew my attention to it. I noticed the resemblance to the iPod stickers, though, so did a little research and found this MadTV parody... it's a little predictable, but still has a good message.

The Water Is Ours

Seen in the Strip District, April 18, 2008, This stopped me in my tracks. It was one of our first warm days of Spring and the streets were alive with people on their lunch breaks. Everyone was walking or eating or smoking and generally enjoying the weather. People kept walking around me when I stopped to read this and take the picture. It was especially poignant because of the water damage, the text streaked by rain, when the topic was the right to WATER. This is what it says:

"The water is ours damnit!" In 1999, under pressure from the World Bank, the Bolivian government, sold off the water system of its 3rd largest city Cochabamba behind closed doors to multi-national investors including the Bechtel Corporation. Over night people were asked to pay 25% of their income for water including collected rainfall and backyard wells. Months of protese ensued. The country was declared under martial law but thousands took to the streets. This, combined with international activist pressure forced Bechtel to flee the country. Despite subsequent attempts to sue Bolivia for $25M in loss of "potential profit," the people of Cochabamba succeeded in defeating a corporate giant and reclaiming control of one of life's most neccessary resources.

Washington Landing, Herr's Island, Allegheny River

I laid on the wall in the sun for a while. It was below 50, but it felt warmer in the sun.

I climbed down the hill beside the wall and looked through the bits of glass and shards of pottery and sticks and stones.

I imagined I was an anthropologist or archaelogist in the future, what these pieces of life would mean to me. There were even a couple of old spoons with designs on the handle
i almost found the whole bowl to reconstruct! (not quite...)

this is what i kept:

a smooth purple glass orb
a piece from the bowl with greco-roman looking fresco type enamel.
also, a piece of what, if i remember my college geology class at all, is granite (maybe feldspar in it?? i only remember feldspar cause it's a funny word), a river shell, and a perfectly round stone.

Won't You Wear A Sweater?

The Green Rabble

Pittsburgh really gets into St. Patrick's Day. It's not even St. Patrick's day yet, technically. But the Parade was today and the mobs in green were out as well. I tried to take some pictures from my car as I was stuck in traffic, but it doesn't really capture the insanity. There were hoardes of people in all shades of green with green accoutrement, such as a green Pope hat, green star shaped sunglasses, green beads, green hair, and on and on. Here's a small sample.

Beauty

found: Eloise Street, North Side, Pittsburgh


the text:
Beauty
must be defined as
what we are,
or else the concept itself
is our enemy

To see beauty is
simply to learn the
private language of
meaning which is
another's life--
to recognize and
relish
what is.

Why languish in the shadows of a standard
We cannot personify and ideal we live

Second Installment of Pittsburgh Dinosaurs

This one is located in Aspinwall, north of Pittsburgh, at the intersection of North Ave. and Center Ave.

Allegheny Observatory

I went for a drive this afternoon with the idea of going to Riverview Park up above the North Side, I don't know if it's considered North Side or Observatory Hill or Perrysville or what, but I drove up. Eventually I ended up on the top of the hill at the Allegheny Observatory.

There were some families out sledding. It was a perfect day for sled ridding. It wasn't that cold out (in the mid to upper 30s celsius) but the snow was still there. The places where the snow was melting created some neat visual effects. The ice melting from the trees and dripping onto the snow gave it a dappled look.