Legendary Rather Ripped Records, Born Again in Lawrenceville

How many Record Stores become famous album titles and how many of those are in Pittsburgh?

From The Post Gazette:

"Its owner is Russ Ketter, who grew up here on the South Side and left for the West Coast in 1969 to pursue a songwriting career. "Instead of going to Woodstock, I went to Berkeley that weekend."

He has no regrets about that.

He got a job at a record store called Leopold's and then moved across town two years later to open Rather Ripped, inspired by a stoned friend's description of his condition at a particular moment. The store was well timed with the punk scene that was about to explode in the mid-'70s.

"Everybody came through that store, the Clash, the Sex Pistols, the glam rock scene. As soon as The Police came to the U.S., they did an autograph party at our store" -- partly because drummer Stewart Copeland went to UC Berkeley."

The story seems amazing and worthy of a book: Patty Smith's first West Coast Performance- in the store came after Ketter wrote a letter begging her to play-- signed in his own blood

The store came to an end in 1980 after a terrible fire but the story hardly ended there.

Read all about it. http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/ae/music/rather-ripped-records-gets-a-new-life-in-lawrenceville-664074/

Rather Ripped will be opening up in a little storefront under Arsenal Lanes, and will sell a variety of records, CD's, Posters, Rock Collectibles, and vintage clothing-- from the source, so to speak.

Reading Suggestions While Roasting Those Chesnuts Over an Open Fire

Keith Richards, Patti Smith, Santaleaks and Bagging the Beats at Midnight (the latter two are available online).

Keith Richards: A Life. I love the Rolling Stones, but it didn't really occur to me that this might turn out to be a good book. Then the reviews started pouring in. All good. Every one of them. And the book, which has a co-author, is engrossing.Richard's really knows how to turn a phrase, and he certainly doesn't seem the least bit concerned about offending people. He has a fascinating story to tell. I read half of the 547 page book the first night I got it. Brings the 60s and 70's to life. Great portraits of musicians and other artists. And celeberties. And groupies. The whole cast of characters. Too bad Hogarth isn't alive any longer, what he could do with this source material!!!!!

Santaleaks The title speaks for itself. And you thought the wikileaks cables were shocking! From The New Yorker, the link is here

Just Kids by Patti Smith This book came out maybe early this year? So it has been out for quite awhile. The subject is Patti Smith's love affair/friendship/creative fermenting with Robert Mapplethorpe.It is one of my favorite books. So well written. So evocative of NYC's underground. And a great story about the process of two people becoming artists. Patti Smith just received the National Book Award for this work.

Bagging The Beats At Midnight by Karen Lillis Karen's memoir of her time as a clerk in the famous St Mark's Bookstore in NYC. There are currently 4 installments. Like the Patti Smith book, it left me with an unanswered question, why on earth didn't I ever work in a NYC bookstore???!!! If I have my life to live over, this will be on the agenda, at least for awhile. Ofcourse the bookstores have to be as interesting as those in which Patti Smith and Karen Lillis worked.
Bagging the Beats at Midnight is so well-written, and a lot of fun.

Karen's piece is here
There is also a video of the editor of Undie Press reading a bit from the first installment here

Paula Poundstone @ Carnegie Music Hall Library In Homestead Tonight

Mostly, I'm doing this post about a comedian performing @ The Carnegie Library in Homestead because it's an excuse to mention the venue.

Any list of "must see" places in the Pittsburgh region would have to include a few of Carnegie's libraries in places like Braddock and Homestead. The term, "library", doesn't describe most of them well. These were really "community centers", and almost always included a gym, a library collection and reading room and a music hall or auditorium of some kind,usually built with the finest workmanship and design. Often they included showers for workers who didn't have them at home.

The Libraries demonstrate Carnegie's somewhat contradictory views towards his workers. As a boy who pulled himself up from poverty by his own bootstraps and lacked a lot of formal schooling, he valued self education and continuing learning. Likely, he felt most of his employees were not interested or destined to be more than "manual laborers", who needed to watched to keep them from drink and vice. But, at the same time, Carnegie felt there were some who would take to books and opportunity if it was offered and knew that his mills and the future of his company depended on finding, nurturing and promoting them.

The Libraries embody these values, combining a place for kids to exercise, be entertained, stay "off the streets" and away from "vice", and perhaps read if they were so inclined. I say, kids because very few of his workers would have had the free time or energy to enjoy the Library and might visit once or twice a year.

She is number 88 on Comedy Central's list of the 100 greatest standups of all time,[citation needed] and number 7 on Maxim's list of "Worst Comedians of All Time".[4]

Here's a nice article about the Restoration of The Homestead Library Reading Room, with images that give some idea of it's beauty.


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Any discussion of the region's revival, (the Mon Valley is hardly there yet.) should give credit to the deluxe assets left here by folks like Carnegie.



Here's Patti Smith @ The Homestead Library