Thoughts of the Day

1. I am not sure what is going on... but it is in the 60's today in the Burgh... and its October... not even early October... like post-Ides of October. It is supposed to be cool and crisp and sweater weather. I managed to pull off a Rugby shirt today, but i am wearing shorts with it. Grrr.

2. Being on the penultimate floor of the building has its downsides... or so it would appear.

see, when it started to not be 85 degrees everyday, all the old people in the building decided it was time to turn on their heaters and BLAST that stuff. Of course, since heat rises, our apartment is feeling the affects. I have never seen an air conditioner work so hard to acheive almost nothing at all. Last night I came in from a movie around midnight... and by midnight it has been dark for a while and the temperature outside should have fallen significantly. My roommate was wandering around in a t-shirt and a daze saying "its so hot... its so hot..."

being the attentive person i am, i immediately put my hand over the vent where the AC was supposed to be blasting... you'll never guess what was coming out...

WARM AIR.

groooooooooooooooooooooooss.

I next went to the thermostat to see where we actually were temperature-wise. The mercury had just passed the line marked "balls". That is right. Our apartment is officially hotter than balls. In October.

Now, i looooooooooooove fall. Love it love it love it. But if this is what fall is going to bring us I may actually have to move New England. Grosser than Gross.

Oh to ride the rails...

I've long been intrigued by locomotive travel. There is something so cool about a train with cars attached racing through the night with sleepy people inside, watching the dark horizon zip past.

When i was little I took every opportunity I got to ride a train, or play with an electric train set. When ours broke it was maybe the saddest Christmas in my memory... no little town scene and locomotive zipping around the Frazier Fir that year.

Even today I find this mode of travel enticing. I may or may not (on occasion) ride the subway in Pittsburgh for the short three stops that it is free... and i may or may not do this for the shear thrill of taking rail travel. A couple years ago my friends and i were celebrating the New Year at a friend's place in the city, so i ran a little experiment. I had my mother take me to Latrobe, and I took the train from there to Pittsburgh. (That trip ended up being free because the engineer didn't see me and blasted through the station, so the porter gave me a wink when i got on board, and thanked me for my ticket... a piece of paper i had yet to purchase.

The following year, i was invited to the wedding of my best friend's older brother in Washington D.C. I caught the train in The Burgh this time, and rode it right into downtown DC, where i walked to the other side of the station and caught the subway to the hotel where the wedding was being held. I'll write the story of that trip later (it was a fiasco mixed with pure joy).

All of this combined with my passion for film work has lead me to want to pursue a new project. This idea has been with me for a while, but now i'm thinking about really making it happen.

I want to board the train here with a rucksack, a camera, a microphone and tripod and ride the train to the West Coast and back. Along the way i'll interview passengers, and anyone i can get permission to talk to; engineers, food service personnel, porters, station attendants (did i just make those people up?), the corporate heads of Amtrak... whomever i can.

I want to explore the American Rail system, and do it from within. Not trying to take Amtrak down, but to explore why people don't use it, and what could make it a more viable means of transportation.

When i originally pitched this idea to a professor he suggested i "hobo it"... by that he meant hopping a freight train in the middle of the night. He then retracted his suggestion stating that he couldn't actually encourage me to do something dangerous on the record. But, he liked the idea. When i called Amtrak to ask permission to bring the equipment on board they said that all i needed to do was to have a letter signed by a professor delivered to a certain person at their head offices, and they would send me a letter of approval.

So, now all i have to do is really read up on the research end, get an accredited someone to write me the letter (since i'm out of school now) and scrape together the money... 500 dollars or so for the tickets... maybe that is one of the problems with train travel right there...

Going Home

There is an odd thing that happens to me every year: I go completely nutty over Fall.

I do. I honestly do. The leaves change, the air cools off, the sweaters come out\ and the hikes are not as sweaty as they once were. I love it. The brilliantly sunny afternoon and the cool, clear evenings... seeing your breath but not needing gloves.

Nothing can epitomize this feeling for me quite like Fort Ligonier Days. And, for me, this is going Home.

As one drives through the Loyalhanna Gorge from Latrobe he is surrounded by bright and full foliage, a sweeping, winding stream, (the remnants of the hollow... sad face) and the smell of wood and leaves finally burning again.

This place is a dream-town. It is like Maybury... very little crime, a picturesque downtown area, steepled churches, a Gazebo in a roundabout, a red-brick Town Hall with large white columns in front... just everything small-town America once was, and should forever be. I have a feeling in another 50 or 60 years people will purposely stop through here on road-trips to show their children "the way Grandpa and Great Grandpa grew up." Priceless.

Every Fall, there is a festival in town, that totally incapacitates any attempt by the average resident to have a normal weekend. You cannot get to the grocery store by car (unless you want to sit in traffic for half an hour... only going one mile in total)... it is impossible to be anywhere in town on Saturday between the hours of 830AM and 1200 noon without hearing marching drums... 100,000 people show up to a 1 square mile of land usually occupied by 1600... The fire station is blocked by the Oscar Meyer Weiner-mobile (you think i'm kidding)... a north-south highway has to be rerouted from the middle of town to side-streets because the middle of town is full of food stands and people selling crocheted Kleenex Box Holders with Steelers logos beadazzled on the sides. All of this, shuts down our town for the weekend, and somehow it is best economic boom each year. Somehow that seems odd to me... the "shut down" our town... THEN we make more money.

There is something more, though, about coming home to this. Something intangible. I live in Pittsburgh now, and I spent the last four years of my life mostly in Meadville. When I leave a friend's house in Pittsburgh and head back to my apartment i say "i'm going home"... and when I would leave the bar at school it was to "walk home"... but this is different. This is "Home".

There is a sense of magic about this place. Maybe that is how it is for many people with the place they grew up... but i have to wonder. This is a town with that "Cheers!" syndrome where "Everybody knows you're name" (i'm dating myself)... it is a place where kids are raised by thier parents... and thier aunts, uncles, cousing, friend's parents, neighbors, teachers and siblings, and i mean that in a good way... not as if "well... my sister basically had to raise me".

Coming home feels good because people here care. They know who you are. These people watched you grow up. They watched you fall (literally and figuratively), and they watched you succeed. That is why i don't get annoyed when a thousand people ask me "what are you doing now?" and "how is work" or "what are you planning on doing next"... they genuinely want to know.

So, I'm Home. Maybe someday when i come here i'll be home too... but for now its just Home.

A random post

so... It turns out that being unemployed isn't a blasty blast. Whoda thought? I don't want to talk about it.

Working freelance, however, is a blasty blast... When you have work that is.


I don't really know why I haven't blogged in so long... Maybe it is the whole spending time looking for a job... Maybe it is fighting with cocast over their totally awful sales people and severely lacking Internet... Maybe it is because the roomate and I are totally kicking buttock in our season of madden... Or maybe it is because not driving downtown every morning for a month has left me with little to gripe about when I sit down at Compy ever morning. The most annoyin that has usuall happened to me by the time she a up and surfing is that the water pressure I the shower dropped And the cold... Nay... Lukewarm water from the cold tap has cut out scalding me.

I do have some rants saved... Or rather bottled... Up about the busses in our burgh, but I'll wait on those. But for now, for both of you read this blog and don't talk to me on a daily basis just know I'm alive and still annoyed and amuse by the small things in life. For my sanity's sake I should release that stuff here. I'll try. I'll try.

100th Post!

100 posts... awesome.

Lets review: Sarcasm scared Sodexho so much that they responded... someone in a bar one night told me they read the blog and were refered to it by someone in alumni affairs...

now if we count parents and friends... i think readership is up to five. Suh-weet. You all get a sticker that says "GRAPE JOB!" and has a bunch of grapes on it. It is scratch-n-sniff... enjoy it. don't get high.

RANDOM THOUGHTS:

a.) Pandora radio is amazing. I have about 20 stations on there, and yesterday "Fleetwood Mac" radio played about 25 songs in a row... all of which i liked... none of which i skipped or gave the thumbs down to.

for those of you who don't know what it is, pandora.com is a website where you tell the computer a song or artist you like, and it creates a free online radio station that plays music similar to that... YAAAAAAAAAAAY!

try it.

you'll be hooked.

b.) today Pandora played "wheel in the sky" by Journey... i like journey, but that one never did it for me. I pushed the thumbs down, and since they redesigned the pandora website there are new messages... this is what popped up: "we're really sorry! we'll find something else for you to listen to now, and we'll never play this song again. we are currently destroying it from all existance with our partners of world-bettering monopoly at Google. Sit back, relax, and trust that steve perry will not even know he ever sang that song. it will now cease to exist."

i hear the next version will peel grapes for you.

c.) I saw REO Speedwagon a week ago, and i'v ebeen too busy to comment. SO i will now.

sqqqquuuuueeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! freakin' rocked.

It was at PNC Park after teh buccos loss last thursday, and during Roll with the Changed Kevin Kronin ran around the bases while plaiyng his guitar... its like we are brothers from different mothers.

AH-mazing.

Tow Me Chuck!

I wish i'd had my camera, or time to pull out my camera phone...

As i was taking a mid-morning break from staring at a computer screen, i sat outside the office here in Soho, and saw something truly hilarious...

A tow truck turned onto our street from the Boulevard of the Allies, towing a Chevy Sedan. What was funny, was that there were four elderly people inside the car. Not the tow truck... but inside the car as it was towed, front wheels off the ground.

They were in the car, laughing, and singing with the windows down and the radio going.

Best Gas Mileage Ever.

That's What She Said...

Our Time is Up...

I have long found myself in a state of frustration, stemming from a love-hate relationship with short-form story telling. Be they short-stories or film shorts, I find it this method of story very appealing. It is concise, often ambiguous and just the right length that one sitting satisfies the needs of a beginning a middle and end. This is why i love them.

The reason that I hate them is the hackneyed methods by which many are written, expecting us to think they are deep, or original. By the end of college I decided that if i was ever forced to read one more story in which the 'big twist' or the 'shocking ending' was that someone committed suicide, I would be dropping out of school. Perhaps that was a hyperbolic empty threat, but hyperbole is acceptable when used as means of conveying a point. I just decided that.

I think I contracted this love of the short-from narrative from my father, a man who earned his PhD. by substituting short stories as the text to encourage theological discussions in a small group setting. Genius. The man even writes short stories, and frankly, he has a gift for it.

It is because of this and my large Polish-Catholic maternal family's tendency to sit around a dinner table covered in the remnants of Pierogies and Polish Sausage and mashed potatoes, drinking beer and scotch, and trading stories their upbringing... it is because of this, that I have this that I have this love of stories that can be absorbed in a short period of time.

Being involved in film that way that I am, I continually seek out new and well-produced pieces to take in. This is one of the best I have seen in quite some time.

The film even deals with that trite subject of imminent death and the way it can change someone and his outlook on life, but it does in the most refreshing of ways. The Bucket List was a fine film, making poignant comments about what it means to be truly wealthy, and that was fine... but we have seen that before.

What "Our Time is Up" does is to use that imminent mortality as a means of allowing someone to shed that which has been hindering him and to actually help others in the way he has always wanted. The mortality issue is never actually directly addressed; rather, it is necessary mode of change that allows the narrative to take us on the journey with the characters.

While skipping around the chance to give away the ending, allow me to say this: It ends in a satisfying way. It is not some major climax of revelation, or a complete tear-jerker, but it does paints a picture of hopefulness and bettering of the world.. however small that may be. I would encourage anyone with 10 minutes to spare, to find five more and watch this 15 minute short.

It is well worth your time. Now, ours seems to be up.

A Movie Review: The Dark Knight

Everyone seems to be all giddy over the new Batman movie "The Dark Knight."

I saw it last week, and as much as we Gators like to go against the grain of the wider popular culture, I must admit it was spectacular. The movie is a refreshing turn from the standard super hero movie that has become a summer staple in the last 10 years. We continually see movie after movie where the hero is called to face some foe or enemy that challenges who he is and what is right. And the hero manages to beat the villain at his own game.

This is not so much the case this time.

Batman finds himself being called a vigilante by the people of Gotham, and there are few who understand and appreciate the service he is performing in the city. I won't give away the ending, but there is an amazing Christ-like sacrifice he makes involving his own reputation, calling to mind the old mantra that true character is how one acts when no one can see you.

Most of the hype is over the late Heath Ledger's portrayal of The Joker. Let me first say that, regardless of Ledger's unfortunate and disappointing death, this is the performance of the year. Ledger plays the classic villain with a depth and richness that rivals that of Johnny Depp's Captain Jack Sparrow in the "Pirates" movies. He is at once comical, creepy, eerie, human and believable... and I think it is that last piece that makes the movies so appealing.

Superman is an Alien and Spiderman is the result of a freak accident... But Batman... Batman is a person. A human, like any other, who trained himself in martial arts and enlists the aid of technology and close friends (like Morgan Freeman and Michael Kane's charcters) to make him the powerful agent for good that he is. In the latest series of movies, disbelief is suspended with little trouble because everything is portrayed so realistically. Even the Joker's eerie permanent smile is actually scars, and he clearly wears make-up instead of being some scarred freak.

It is these elements that support the characters and make the movie such a rich experience. The Joker is a deeply evil character that we somehow like... we don't want him to win, but at the same time he is real and he is human and he is kind of fun. He is also the ultimate villain because he doesn't seem to have anything that makes him tick. Most villains (such as the Character of Two-face) are borne of some childhood crisis or tragedy involving a loved-one in adulthood... The Joker is the exception. He seems only to desire anarchy and chaos. When things go wrong it is almost as if he wins anyway.

I would suggest that anyone interested listen to the Fresh Air interview with Director Christopher Nolan and Batman himself, Christian Bale. Toward the end, Bale adresses the issue of Ledger's accidental overdose and the how much he truely enjoyed playing the Joker. When you see the movie, I think it is clear. Ledger's performance is rich with the fun he enxperienced driving his portrayal.

6 stars on a scale to 5.

Thoughts of the Day... so far

1. Yesterday morning, as I watched the KDKA morning newcast on Pittburgh's CW... (inhale) I came to realization that they severely lack creativity. At least whoever comes up with the names of things down there. It was either the weather guy (who could not have been more wrong about the forecast yesterday) or the traffic guy who said these words... "Ok, now lets take a look at out 'Outdoor-cam'!"

No way! You have a camera outdoors? Where will the magic stop?

Outdoor-cam is what a 6 year old calls it. C0me on... you can do better. At least there is no question as to what 'Outdoor-cam' actually is. I have to admit that it is functional.

2. Last week i was driving home, and decided to drive through Sewickley since it is nothign short of gorgeous on a nice afternoon. While i was there i saw something i could not believe. A port-authority directional and velocitational engineer (bus-driver, for the less-well-versed) opperating the 16A while on a cellular phone. Not a hands-free cellular phone, mind you, but a big awkward hand-held thing. I feel so safe.

3. Not a week after i have the passenger window replaced, does teh driver side window decide to become dislodged from whatever contraption make it go up and down inside the door. At least it is up and secure. .... (grumble, grumble)...

4. Training camp starts Sunday. w00t. Read all about it here.

5. The Steelers training camp page has directions to get there from Baltimore. HAH! mmmmexcellent...

Success

This is what was in the mail when i got home yesterday. The friend who mailed it to me has just been crowned my new favorite. There it is. The Seal.

I also failed scanning this about 15 times. I finally go it though. Now anyone from Allegheny can have it for their wallpaper on their phone or computer.

Boo. Yah.

Today's Thoughts: Gone with the Schwinn

1. First and foremost: THE SPEEDWAGON IS BACK! The window and door panel were replaced yesterday, and i drove the piece or gorgeousness in today.

2. When I walked into the foyer at the house yesterday there was something waiting for me that could quite possibly be the best piece of mail I have ever received. It is relevant to the blog, so there will be more to come on that. Stay tuned.

3. I was on the 16 block (some of those are very looooong blocks) walk from the office to my bus stop the other day, and I had just gotten to the part of Forbes where you pass under the Cross-town Boulevard.

CRUISING up the street toward me, was a kid on a bicycle, and I was impressed, because he was not only doing a wheelie, but he was doing it on his front wheel.

Then, as i looked closer, something seemed amiss... the back wheel, about 2 and a half feet off the ground, was flopping side to side... it was then that i noticed the front tire was not, in fact, turning but was, in fact, skidding.

Out of the corner of my eye (and in slow motion, i might add) i saw the light switch from yellow to red... that was when the bike gave up, crashed to the ground at the white "stop here on red line" as if to say "HEY! I KNOW THE LAW!" and sent the kid FLYING toward the intersection and skidding across the pavement, having been bucked from the bike as if it were a horse with a sarcastic sense of humor.

As he bounced six or seven times, his legs had already begun to move in an effort to get on his feel, much like Dino from The Flintstones or a Cocker Spaniel trying to run on a linoleum kitchen floor when his master comes home.

Cars came to screeching halts, and several people, including myself, jumped off the curb and into the street to make sure the kid was ok, but he was already up collecting the back saying "I'm ok... i'm ok... i meant to do that... i'm actullay a ninja... i just need to sit for a minute and stop shaking... and maybe change my pants."

He really was fine, and I have to admit, that once all the sense of danger was gone and i was replaying it over and over in my mind, it was hard not to laugh. I guess i should have the sick sense of humor looked at.

Gator vs. Cat

The cat (declawed in the front) enters the den almost every evening around 912, and begins to "claw" at the corner of the sofa, while sitting up his hind legs... and giving me a scornful look.

So, my dad sent me this. How apropos.

The Upside of the Bus

This morning, as i was walking the two blocks through the neighborhood to the bus stop I saw both the OV and the 16A (the only two buses i can take, and the only two on this route) stop... with the 16A right on the OVs tail... i am not kidding when i say that the 16A looked like it was going to collide with the OV. Stupid buses being early.

The upside to riding the bus, i have found, is that i am able to listen to the iPod and get some reading done. This morning it was one of my all-time favorite authors, Mr. Bill Bryson.

The book is titled "In A Sunburned Country" and chronicles his travels in Australia. Before reading this boook the first time, i had never given Australia much thought. It is now a goal of mine to get there. He is so informative, while observing the greatest idiosynchracies of anywhere he travels, and he certainly found a wealth of material in the Outback.

This morning, i was reading one of my favorite parts of the book, where Bryson describes Canberra (Can-bra) and i had to stop a few times and resettle myself to keep from laughing outloud on the bus, and risk looking like the people that i tend to avoid in the street... you know the ones... standing facing a wall chuckling to themselves and giving passers-by sideways looks that give them more than the typical "personal bubble"...

Anyway... there are upsides to riding the bus... it would seem.

Gator vs Cat

So the Battle To Make Friends With The Cat wages on...

It has turned into both of us dissing each other left and right, and then trying to butter the other one up. Its a great combination... an ornery goofy cat and an ornery playful Gator... i think we are secretly both enjoying it. It isn't so much a love-hate relationship... it is a hate-loathe kinda thing.

I came home the other day with the guy cousins, behind the girl cousins and aunt in another car. When my aunt opened to garage door, the cat raced out into the yard. When he saw me get out of my car in the driveway, he ran to the front door, knowing i would let him in. When i opened the storm door, he jumped up on the threshold, got on his hind lags and started pawing at the door like a bear or a human, and meowing. However, the door was locked.

So, I gently shut the storm door, trapping Chester between the two doors, and went into the house through the garage. I grabbed one of my cousins, and took him to the front door. We unlocked the door, and opened it, and with a 'rrrrrrrrrroOOOOW!' the cat fell into the hallway, dropping from his hind legs to all fours like a beggar falling at the feet of Jesus.

It was hysterical.

Port Authority... and why no one uses it

you don't even know...

When I am driving to work, the commute is as few as 25 minutes and as many at 45. Its really not bad. I usually leave the house between 7 and 730 and get in before 8 every day. One of the biggest perks is listening to WDUQ the whole way. You don't even know.

When i take the bus in the morning, like when the Speedwagon is hurt (moment of silence) i leave the house at 645, and i get to work at 830. That is an hour and 45 minutes... an hour and 45 minutes.

Yesterday, i took the bus home and... i am not kidding... there was a point where we stopped three times withing 100 feet. And my estimate of 100 feet is a VERY generous estimate.

We stopped at a bus stop... moved the length of the bus to a stop light... sat at the light till it turned green... the stopped on the other side of the intersection. And this was not a big intersection. There was a sidewalk on both sides, and the street we crossed was barely wide enough to have one lane of each traffic in each direction.

THIS is why more people don't use public transportation. You don't even know.

I love Pittsburgh... love it, love it... and i LOVE riding the subway. But here is the thing... it is almost useless to me. The bus drops me at Wood street, so i head into the station, and hop on the T... then i get off at Steel plaza... that is five blocks. Five. I mean, it is fun, and saves me walking... but if i have to wait for the train at all it takes the same time as walking.

I understand that if you are coming from the south hills it is an amazing piece of public transit, but everyone else basically gets a big nose-thumbing from the port authority. Why can the port authority not burrow East from downtown? Wouldn't that make a good bit of sense? But a station in at Duquesne, a stop at the beginnning of Oakland, one under the Cathedral of Learning, Another past CMU... heck, they could even take it out to Monroeville. I guess that would be too logical. You don't even know.

It makes a lot more sense to burrow over to the stadiums, since people seem to REALLY hate walking across the Clemente Bridge...

Oh wait... People love that. They don't even know.

If they just take the north shore connector to the stadiums and that is it, it will be the biggest waste ever. Here's hoping they make it worthwhile and put topside tracks North and West.

This Looks Safe

I snapped this picture on my way to the office this morning. You get to see lots of good stuff when you have to get off the bus at Wood Street and then walk to Uptown.

Also... is the truck in reverse?

Fourth of July

Boy do I love the Fourth.

There were many much much bigger explosions, just as close, but this was the best picture from my phone.

NOTHING gets my heart pumping like...

Nothing get my heart pumping and my Black and Gold Blood racing like this sound... Crack me open an Ahrn City.

That is right... and we are now OFFICIALLY less than a month away from the first preseason game. Boo. Yah.

Steelers-Eagles... August 8th... Heinz Field. 7:30pm EDT.

SPEEDWAGON DOWN! SPEEDWAGON DOWN!

As any who reads this knows (all both of you), the Speedwagon is down.

sad.
face.

Yesterday, while finishing the claims process, the insurance company informed me that they would cover a rental car for up to $30 a day. What is more than that... all i had to do was show up at Enterprise and everything would be taken care of. Direct billing and everything.

So, i figured it was worth a shot. I left the office at five, and wandered downtown to the enterprise office. It turns out that the company will cover the car for up to $30 dollars a day, but what the insurance company won't cover is the... wait for it... insurance.

The company that does nothing but insure stuff won't cover the insurance on the rental car they are providing me. Irony defined. Almost as much as Global Warming protesters getting snowed out.

So it is going to cost a hundred bucks or so to have the thing for like 6 days. Gross.

I go to get into the car, a Dodge Caliber, and as i open to door i get a whiff of something... something that smells like an old hotel room... gross.

That's right. Apparently everyone who has driven this relatively new car has been a chain smoker. Being in the car is like driving a giant nicotine patch. I took one breath and my cravings were gone... cravings that i've never had.

On top of that, driving a rental car feels so weird. Ever have a dog that came back from the groomers with a really goofy haircut (fur-cut?)? You know how the dog looks at you with a sense of shame that says "please don't laugh at me... its not my fault this happened!"
...same thing...

Also, since it is a rental, the car is the cheapest version of the vehicle that Dodge makes. Never have missed the Speedwagon more. i actually went into the garage for a while last night, just to spend time with it. The 'wagon may be missing a window, and it may have a bent doorframe, but at least it smells like that little pine-tree shaped thing i have hanging from the mirror.

Dear car... i miss you.