Pittsburgh is for biking

So...

I got a new bike at the little shop on Forbes in Squirrel Hill.

I'd been thinking about buying a bike long before this recent article came out in the City Paper about the possibility of a bike share program in Pittsburgh (will it happen?  I can only hope...).  

Now if the snow would just stop falling, I'd be a little more inclined to go out for a ride.

It's not that you can't ride your bike with the snow (many people do), it's just that I don't ride my bike when its cold and snowy.  It's just my thing.  

Then I'll join the Bike Pittsburgh crew and be riding the trails and streets like a madman.

I'll be curious to find out how the car/bike tensions compare to that of Seattle.  

Film about biking in da burgh

Check out the latest Streetfilm about Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh is robots

Some folks already know I'm researching for a new theater piece about robots, so of course, I had to venture down to the Carnegie Science Center over in the north side.

Pittsburgh is home to the Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Institute, which is one of the leading robotics research institutions in the world (up there with MIT and Waseda in Tokyo).  Pittsburgh is also home to a few independent robotic companies, as well.

Roboworld was fun and filled with a ton of kids, reminding me a lot of Chuck E. Cheese (which come to think of it, has those creepy animatronics giant creatures, as well).

By chance, I happened to be there the same day they were having an NHL exhibit and showing the Stanley Cup.

The Stanley Cup

What the Stanley Cup has to do with science, I'm not sure.

But it's Pittsburgh, so all roads lead to sports.

I got a nice photo of the Stanley Cup and some other smaller awards from a few floors above the display.  At one point, walking up to another floor, I was directly over the Cup.  I resisted the temptation to spit in it.  Although, as a form of suicide, being mauled and ripped apart by a mob wearing Pens jerseys might be a memorable way to go.

There was even a robot that played basketball.

I kinda want one for my birthday, but have no place to put it.

Pittsburgh is the holiday spirit

Yes, it's winter, as the snow will testify!  And yes, the snow has been here quite awhile.

Ah, how I miss driving in the snow (not really).

I do, however, love the holiday decorations around town, including the hat and scarf around the dinosaur outside the Carnegie Museum.

Happy Holidays to Yinz!

Pittsburgh is poetry

Today's Poem of the day, brought to you by Poets.org is a poem by Pittsburgh native Gerald Stern.


Books


How you loved to read in the snow and when your
face turned to water from the internal heat
combined with the heavy crystals or maybe it was
reversus you went half-blind and your eyelashes
turned to ice the time you walked through swirls
with dirty tears not far from the rat-filled river
or really a mile away—or two—in what
you came to call the Aristotle room
in a small hole outside the Carnegie library

Pittsburgh is gargoyles

Or at least, it was...in honor of Halloween.

These babies were at the Phipps Conservatory.

Pittsburgh is experimental theatre

Quantum Theatre's new show is titled When the Rain Stops Falling and it just opened last weekend.

(Contrary to what you might think--it is NOT about Seattle.) 

We've got tickets for this Saturday which to me seems not soon enough.  I cannot wait that long to see this show, given what I've heard about this company (part of it from the Artistic Director Karla Boos).

Written by an Australian playwright named Andrew Bovell, it is being performed in the vacant Iron City Brewery as part of Quantum's initiative to bring theater to different non-theatre spaces, as well as to connect with the community--in this case, Lawrenceville.  They've been doing this kind of thing for twenty years now and from what I hear, they're pretty freaking amazing.

Read more about it at Boring City here.