Grow Up And Act Normal

Yet another borderline ballistic rant wells up almost every day as I read the paper and think about the future of what looks like a nation run by infants. Mommy, Mommy, I want a Maglev! I want a Maglev!



But son, we are a little short right now and we need money for those roads and bridges you want. I need them to get to my new house, Mommy. The one you bought to avoid city taxes? Transportation is a right! OK, but we are having problems. The loans uncle Freddie and Aunt Fannie guaranteed for a lot of peoples houses have gone bad. You haven't made a mortgage payment on your house in the last two months. Mommy, housing is a right! You told me that. Do you need six bedrooms and a three car garage? It's what you gave Timmy! It's what you gave Paul! I know, but now there are so many bad loans and we need to bail out the banks and--. The banks can't fail! The banks can't fail! Banking is a right! But son, remember the health care you need. Mommy, we can't talk about that. Health care is a right! Life and death, Mommy, I don't want to die. I want to live forever, and ever. I know son, but sometimes we have to make choices and....

Mommy, Mommy, Mommy. We can't talk about this. I want a Maglev. I want a Maglev. I shouldn't have to choose! This is America, the greatest nation in the world. I have rights!! It's what you said. It's what you promised. It's why your my favorite mommy. You make me feel safe. You never used to talk like this. This is America! We can do anything. I want a Maglev! I want a Maglev!

Tedious, isn't it? And, You know I could go on and on with only slight exaggeration.

Null Space and the Post Gazette both things up about the childish antics that likely resulted in our relative lack of new rail funds. When Obama's administration starts to think your plans are unrealistic, you have a big problem.

Not going into the specific proposals too deeply, generally the bulk of funds went to states that--

A) Seemed to really want rail projects.
B) Had somewhat reasonable proposals to economically upgrade existing freight tracks and rights of way.
C) Point to point connections designed to link cities.

It also seemed like things tilted heavily to corridors with somewhat limited physical barriers like mountains. We can, quibble pretty heavily about the likely use of some of these lines (like the Buffalo one and the Chicago, Detroit One.)

So why so little for us? We are a big populous state with almost the only already viable existing line running along our coast. We are also a stones throw from Cleveland with no mountains between us along the former legendary Chicago, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia line almost everyone thinks needs to be reborn.

So, what happened? Well, it doesn't seem like projects linking either Cleveland to Pittsburgh or to Philly (or D.C.) were submitted. Instead, we asked for funds for a fairly reasonable commuter line from Scranton and this....

"Mr. Gurney said release of the funding was stalled because the railroad agency's attention was on awarding the $8 billion in new grants. Thirty-seven states and the District of Columbia submitted $57 billion in requests for the money, which was part of last year's economic stimulus package.

Pennsylvania applied for $2.3 billion in stimulus money to start maglev construction, but Mr. Gurney said it appeared from the start that the grants would all go to conventional steel-wheel-on-rail projects.

"What happened was not at all unexpected," he said. "While it's disappointing that no maglev project got any of the funding, we saw the handwriting."

The project calls for a 54-mile system from Pittsburgh International Airport to Downtown Pittsburgh to Greensburg. Mr. Gurney said the severe decline in flights and passenger traffic at the airport has not diminished its potential."

That's right we asked for one of the largest requested grants for a project that doesn't link us to any significant city, but whizzes us to our airport using technology that I think has yet to be proven cost effective.

In fact, we managed to come up with one of the few ideas that might not help Pittsburgh's central city and which worked against rail's great ability to take large numbers of people into and out of dense areas with little impact. This idea seemed focused on helping Monroeville, Penn Hills and the southern and eastern suburbs.

Older Yinzer's may be reminded of the ghost of Skybus, an earlier attempt to corner the market on what was likely a dubious technology.



I should say more but honestly, I'm just too angry.

To quote Null Space, "If your strategy was to actually not expand transit options would the results be any different."

(Clarification-- this is an fairly exagerated rant low on details. We, actually did recieve a tiny 26.4 million to beef up the Harrisburg--Philly section and a whole $750,000 to study improvements to the grindingly slow from here to Harrisburg. I actually don't know all the proposals but it's pretty clear that a heavy focus was put on the Maglev. To my knowledge, nobody here saw value in any link to Cleveland at all.)

Historic Locomotive Works On North Side To Be Torn Down

If you want to know the price Pittsburgh is paying for not having a solid transit system and it's highway building binge in the 20th century, here's yet another clue.

Carnegie's historic railroad works were one of his first major business ventures and started building trains on the North Shore in 1865. The loss of this complex of buildings few noticed from the elevated expressway say's something deep and sick about our culture. Amazingly, few (or perhaps none) have talked about their historical value and even fewer the enormous potential value of this land to the city's tax base and the health of the entire North Side.

"Thousands of skilled workmen labored at the locomotive works over the decades; at full capacity the plant employed as many as 1,500. Some lived nearby in the Manchester neighborhood, which built up rapidly in the late 19th century with factories and housing, and attended St. Andrew Church, once located across from the locomotive works on Beaver Avenue.

Over the years, and with the construction of elevated Ohio River Boulevard next to the factory, the buildings lost all of their residential context. Today, they're surrounded by Duquesne Light equipment and a chain-link fence."

That's right-- before this so called "Boulevard" sliced through the area, this was a critical valuable link in a Neighborhood! A place Brian O'neil tries to describe in The Paris Of Appalachia.

"Check out the 1937 photo of old Beaver Avenue on the next page. See the vibrant street of shops in Manchester, and compare it to the desolate, soulless service road it has become today, a mere abutment to Route 65. The big road takes commuters in from the Northern suburbs to earn their bread and then hightail it home, just as the government planned a half century ago. Manchester lost it's commercial avenue, the lifeblood of any walkable community and has never recovered fully."

I would say he seriously understates things. Manchester today is pretty damn damaged. I just can't spell things out more clearly. Here we have an elevated expressway that has so eviscerated and divided Pittsburgh that most people don't even notice this slice of wonderfully located urban waterfront.

Someday, a wise and courageous city leader might say.

Mr Gorbachev, Tear Down This Wall.

Great Pittsburgh 80's Rock Video: The Silencers

A blast from the past video I was forwarded, of a three song demo video by the Silencers, one of a number of bands from a period many consider the city's golden age of Rock.

The opening Peter Gunn part really showcases a lot of 1980's Pittsburgh, with shots of what looks like either the Terminal building or Armstrong Cork factory; street scenes from The War Streets or Manchester and a very Pittsburgh looking church.

Sorry, again for the relative lack of arts posts.

Ohio Gets Major Dollars For High Speed Rail

This is in no way a comprehensive report, but it seems Ohio will be getting $400 million federal dollars towards creating high speed rail connections on a planned route linking Cincinnati,Dayton,Columbus and Cleveland. The route is somewhat suprising but perhaps wise, providing it's a start.

If you think about it a bit, one grasps that that one of the Midwest's greatest assets is the gently rolling or flat land that makes transport easy. Chicago was the city of broad shoulders because it acted as the central rail head for a vast,rich and flat area of the country. Like it or not, geographic realities place us practically closer to the cities of the Midwest than to most in the east.

As far as I can tell, other funding will be granted to make a link from Chicago to Detroit and Pontiac, a route that honestly seems to make little but political sense. No progress will be made so far on the logical historic rail link between Chicago, Cleveland and Pittsburgh.

I will try to follow this and remain optimistic. The whole thing feels weird. On the one hand, almost all logic and common sense points to the need to revive a great rail system. But, should the government--the same entity that used so much cash and power to destroy our cities and create such a misguided free road system be in this game? How's it done taking care of our highways?

Even more disturbing is that, no real break as far as I can tell has been made with past mistakes. We just don't have money to continue supporting most of our road infrastructure while building a new rail system at the same time. Real goals and choices have to be made. The wisest one being to systematically cut off most federal interstate highway dollars while leaving the market to quickly start creating alternatives, which almost certainly would revolve around rail. (The idea everything must be really high speed is a wasteful fetish. All that's really needed is to be significantly faster than driving.)

By the way, if you haven't noticed it, one of the primary reasons given for Federal Highways was as emergency urban evacuation routes-- a concept proven wrong on numerous occassions like the 2005 failed evacuation of New Orleans. (When the Federally "guaranteed" levee system broke)

Buncher Co Land Fight May Hold Up Light Rail

Up until very recently, I wasn't following the many dream Pittsburgh light rail systems floating around on napkins around town. From what I had heard, Peduto's idea of some kind of loop linking Downtown with the Strip, Bloomfield, Oakland and Shadyside made the most sense. (although, I really thought the cost estimate I once heard of only $25 million seemed absurdly low ball)Of course it makes sense-- I thought of it myself after living in Pittsburgh for one week.

The reasonable plans imagine using existing but underused old rail corridors and easements and almost all go through the Strip.

Such system would vastly increase the potential land uses and density levels along the route meaning more potential cash for almost everyone. It's a win, win so who would have a problem with it?

Well, already the problems are here.


"Although the tracks from 16th to 21st streets were removed or covered over in the 1980s, AVR contends it held the easement to operate rail service in the corridor, and that Buncher was barred from developing the strip of land once occupied by the tracks.

When AVR's chief executive officer, Russell Peterson, and a consultant met with Buncher's president, Tom Balestrieri, in September 2008 to invite the company into a public-private partnership to build a transit-oriented development between 16th and 21st streets, Mr. Balestrieri told them the easement didn't exist, Mr. Peterson said in a filing to the transportation board."

Now I want to make myself clear, (oooops, I really mean it) I'm pretty much a Libertarian and pretty much opposed to all eminent domain uses beyond the most extreme public needs and I really don't think transportation routes fit the bill at all. 90% of the time if a project really makes sense, it will gain support and justify the purchase price of land or rights. People always say they need public power to do what the market won't. Most of the time this is because the idea doesn't make a lot of sense in the first place.

I also have no knowledge at all of this contract. Still, I am pretty shocked and amazed, that a large property owner in the Strip wouldn't see how light rail would vastly increase the value of it's holdings by opening The Strip up to really dense, walkable mixed uses. Even more amazing, is that there's so little talk about these plans. I mean we live in a city that has bulldozed vast areas for Sports Stadiums and almost every other use.

Most people don't know that there is at least one major transit system in Hong Kong run by an incredibly profitable private company which also develops major apartment, office and shopping developments along it's routes.

( The plan talked about in the Post, once again-- focuses on linking to suburban areas instead of creating a comprehensive route in the city. Which, since it serves mostly low and moderate density areas offers little or no chance of paying for itself either by attracting enough riders or through increased property tax collections)

Are American Cities Making The Possible Impossible?

It's sort of embarrassing when you read something you really can't add to much. Aaron Renn who has a great blog called Urbanophile was nice enough to allow an extended quote from his post, Impossibility City.

It should be self evident that people live in cities to be near other people and reap all the benefits of human interaction. Officials are starting to understand people conveniently getting to stores, schools and workplaces but often try to limit and control the unexpected interactions that make cities really valuable. Do they still pump in muzak on the T platforms? God forbid you heard a talented neighbor sing. God forbid they met a record producer.

"On the second front, I don’t think people truly get the link between a broad vision of what a city is, a large sphere in which individuals can pursue divergent activities and goals, and economic success. As Sam Jacob of FAT put it, “Cities are not about the perfect vision; they are not about a singular idea. They are about a collision of all kinds of incompatible demands.” The life of the small town or the suburb are rigidly circumscribed. They might not be about a single vision, but they are about a more narrow and defined view of what life should be. They demand conformity. A place like that, no matter how large or even how successful, is not a true city.

A collision of incompatible demands. What a great way to put it. It is in containing that collision within a geographical, political, social, and culture context that a city creates its meaning. Cities can resolve the paradox, reconcile the incompatible into something new and powerful. It isn’t always pretty. The results are sometimes messy or unpleasant. But its in that resolution process that we create the energy and innovation that moves the city forward and allows its residents, business, and institutions to reinvent themselves and their lives if they so choose.

Let’s put it in terms that are broadly understood, by considering this in the framework of Richard Florida’s “Creative Class”. I don’t think this is the end all, be all by any means. But clearly, in a nation pinning its hopes on an innovation economy to replace the jobs lost by productivity gains and offshoring in traditional sectors, and to power the economic growth of the future, you need to both have the talent and the catalyst to make innovation happen.

Florida’s simplified thesis is that successful cities are about talent, technology, and tolerance. The last point is usually taken to mean a tolerance for gays and various “bohemian” types. But tolerance isn’t about non-discrimination ordinances and it isn’t about gays. Tolerance is a mindset.

The dictionary definition of tolerance is “sympathy or indulgence for beliefs or practices differing from or conflicting with one’s own”. From this is clear that most advocates for “progressive” policies of the type advocated by Florida really aren’t tolerating anything. They might be about allowing differences, but it is seldom about allowing views or actions that are in actual conflict with their own values. Indeed, progressives can be as intolerant as anyone for beliefs or actions that differ from their orthodoxy.

We need tolerance properly so-called. We need an environment where we are willing to put up with things we don’t like in return for the same freedom for ourselves. We need cities where “live and let live” is the motto. Rules that stifle this in order to produce a perpetual suburban style family friendly or least common denominator view of what a city should be are ultimately counter-productive. They sap the city of its animating power.

This isn’t just an obscure philosophical point. It’s real and tangibly important. George Bernard Shaw famously said that “all progress depends on the unreasonable man”. Innovation requires non-conformity with existing ways of doing things. This requires not just the idea, but the mental fortitude to break away not just from our own patterns of doing things, but from the social pressure to conform. In a sense, all innovation depends on the outcast."

Apologies In Advance

I just want to warn people of that a bunch of non art posts are coming, most of which relate to the need to cover and talk about local transit and development issues. Things someone needs to talk about.

For example-- The absolutely huge and realistic chance Pittsburgh may actually have a light rail system in it's future. People who haven't lived here might be shocked at how little buzz, debate and discussion this is creating. The city still provides a large chunk of the region's good jobs while dedicating a huge chunk of it's land to parking and non taxable uses,yet still doesn't understand the value of connecting it's core with a good transit system. Amazingly stupid.

Anyway, I will try to do other posts.

Pitch For More Bloggers Again

Well, we have another very active calendar of art openings, films, events and performances, plus an even fuller line up of related issues about free speech, arts funding, new media, no photography policies but still have far too few people contributing to this blog to make a dent.

Luckily there are a number of new and now pretty decent people covering things on Bittersweet Harvest, City Creative, Pittsburgh Art + Technology and the revived Pittsburgh Art Blog to add to the trusty POP City, I Heart Pittsburgh and improved coverage in The Post Gazette and City Paper.

As to the other main area of my at least personal interest-- blogs covering the local nexus of mass transit, walkable urban design, parking and the local economy pretty much don't exist. There's Bike Pittsburgh, City Walkabout and not much else. It's hard to be bullish on a region that won't talk about some of it's most important issues.

If you think you can contribute to our coverage with one post a month, please shoot us an email.

As to potential payment. I actually think there is a decent chance of adding a bit of advertising or perhaps other revenues but ironically we are just too short of time to get a handle on this--mostly because we are posting.

I will be back with more thoughts.

Amazing Masstransiscope Stop Motion Animation Art

I'm a huge fan of animation and I love trains. Back in the early 1980's an the artist, Bill Brands realised that a moving train itself could be used to make a video experience for it's passengers. In this video are a compilation of stories about the project and several very informative interviews with the artist.

Over many years this public art project fell victim to time, dirt and vandals, but was restored fully in 2008. I remember going back and forth a few times just to see it again.

Pittsburgh's Great Operatic Traffic Cop Dies

OK, I'm not from Pittsburgh and just wasn't here to see this guy at work. But I remember him from Candid Camera.

Two things come across, the first being that seeing anyone who really loves their job in action is always a joy.

The second is just how much the social lives of cities and how we view them has changed. Clearly this cop understood the human "messiness" of city traffic, isn't just a problem to be controlled, but an intricate dance in which the goals of all people are gently coordinated. An old lady may be slow to cross, someone may need a nudge to stop or slow down, perhaps a kid dropped his favorite toy in the street-- these are not always serious police matters to be solved with tickets and "law enforcement". Mostly the role of this arm swinging character was to have people slow down and watch out at a critical urban intersection.

Interestingly, Victor Cianca was loved more by Pittsburgher's than by many fellow officers.

"I've gotten more guff from the guys I work with than I ever got from the public," he said in 1982.

When he was invited to New York to accept an award from "Candid Camera," then-Police Superintendent James W. Slusser refused to let him to travel there.

"If he wants to be an actor, he should take a course at Carnegie Tech," Mr. Slusser said, at the time. Mr. Slusser later allowed Mr. Cianca to go, though it was too late for the man to receive his award."

January Gallery Crawl

A couple weeks ago, I did a brief tour downtown of some of the visual arts venues. Well, as a follow-up, I swung through downtown for the January Gallery Crawl on Friday to catch some of the things that I missed and see the new exhibits. My first stop was Resolutions, curated by Urban Tree Forge and moxie DaDA.



Unfortunately, the gallery crawl was the closing reception for the exhibit. But I did want to point out that Gabe Felice had several small works in the show. Not the ones pictured above. The venue was entirely too packed to really get a shot. These were indicative of what was at the venue though. What I've seen of his work seems to be in this really small scale. Gabe Felice shows pretty regularly, so I'm sure you'll have an opportunity to see it out there in Pittsburgh.

Urban Tree Forge & moxie DaDA
820 Liberty Avenue
Resolutions
Resolutions promotes moral courage and strength of mind. Artists have been chosen for their choice in materials and context of self-discovery, as well as their resolve to create and produce from within the urban landscape.

As always, Shaw Galleries had its wonderful collection of prints and maps on display. This month, Shaw is showing a series of pochoir prints created by Rouault. The exhibit is over on January 30, so try to stop by and see them. There is a short explanation of pochoir prints in a previous post.

Shaw Galleries
Rouault: Visages
805 Liberty Avenue
Features all 10 original pochoir prints from the late French Expressionist Georges Rouault's very rare Visages Portfolio (Album of Faces).

The Gallery Crawl was too packed to get images from 707 Gallery of Anjali Srinivasan's solo exhibit. The above image is from the artist's website. Several people have already reviewed this exhibit, so I am just adding my voice to the many in urging you to go and see it. The work is lovely and I look forward to visiting the gallery again before the exhibit closes in February.

707 Penn Gallery
707 Penn Avenue
Particulate Behaviors: New Works by Anjali Srinivasan
The exhibit explores the threshold of olfactory sensation, optical phenomena and participatory environments, through installations and objects of spice, glass and emergent technologies.

The Paris Of Appalachia Book Review Coming Soon

I finally read long time Post writer and North Shore resident, Brian O'Neill's, The Paris Of Appalachia and hope to get a review up in the next few days. The book was very well written and brings a the sincere perspective and insights of a long time resident to the city. I highly recommend it. It's a fairly short, easy, fascinating read filled with personal stories of life in town-- or at least life in a small part of the North Shore. However, this is also it's great flaw. O'Neill just doesn't give a broad enough view of the city to back up all the sweeping conclusions he makes in the last few chapters. Ironically, I end up with a more positive and optimistic view of our assets and prospects than he does.

I will try very hard to get this up in the next few days.

Deitch Speculation And Buzz Update

No real news to report here but NY Magazine published a nice story filled with art world insiders opinions on what this major dealers move to head a major museum may mean.

“He’ll have one foot in New York,” predicts Larry Warsh, an art collector who serves on the board of the Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat with Deitch. The MOCA could end up endorsing the “Goog model,” says Warsh, and add MOCA satellites or partnerships worldwide. He could even start a branch in New York (Deitch says he will close his galleries here by May, but intends to maintain a presence via guest exhibits). "That wouldn’t surprise me at all,"

It's certainly my hope that the combination of a somewhat desperate institution in a world art capital and a famous and globaly connected person like Jeffrey will lead to very exiting and ground breaking results.

Another Jane Jacobs Video

Jane Jacobs: Parting Words (2007) from Kevin Balmer on Vimeo.

Too lazy a disorganised today to post much or tie thoughts together. Here's another video, about Jane Jacobs. It's not nearly long enough.

In a more rational world all of this Jane stuff would get pretty stale, lame, and redundant. After all this should be just common sense. However, in the fragile world of Pittsburgh and America today, the first step in making the world a "better place", is to keep the ignorant and powerful from making it worse.

I like that the video draws the link between a lot of Richard Florida's ideas and their obvious roots in Jane's writing.

Art Clokey: Mandala

I was hoping to share some thoughts about the downtown shows I saw last night, but honestly the gallery crawl was too packed to really see things well. I will be back.

One highlight was my visit to the small, shoestring, start up museum called the Toonseum which screened a documentary about Gumby's creator and his pioneering first film called Gumbasia.

The documentary referred heavily to another equally experimental artistic project he made later, called Mandala, a trippy religious meditation on life and death.

Jet's Fans Crowd Times Square

I swear this isn't really about the Jets (GO GO GO GO GO JETS) but about the way NYC continues to lead the way as an innovator in pedestrian friendly design-- at least in Manhattan.

So anyway the Jets are in the AFC championship game, (a rare moment) and their having a pep rally-- big deal. Sad to say that in many ways it is. Most of the time, these rallies have to be organised well in advance and be held in a stadium, thousands packed the roads to get to. Of course if one wins the whole thing, most cities block off a central area for approved celebrations, an inconvenience that seriously screws up traffic patterns and interrupts business and daily life.

This however doesn't seem like this at all. Daily life is going on and traffic is moving normally because Broadway, the central street in the "center of the world", is now always closed to traffic.

How can this happen? Well, experts have long known that close to 90% of the people in Times Square on a business day took some form of mass transit or walked there. Even so, up till almost a year ago, the bulk of space was dedicated to cars. Sidewalks were jammed so tight that many pedestrians tried to avoid the area if they could. Finally the mayor whom I don't fully support on many things took the logical step of closing Broadway from 23RD Street all the way past 42ND Street to all non emergency vehicles.

Not everyone's happy about it.


Streetfilms-Veronica Moss Visits Times Square - The most amazing home videos are here

A Few Words About Free Speech

This blog's title strongly implies it's not about politics but culture. Even so, it's pretty hard to imagine real sincere cultural exchange or growth without freedom of speech or association.

The Constitution really can't be more clear in stating that the government has no right at all to limit the free speech, the press or free association of it's citizens. But, I guess if one had to guess the most protected form of communication intended by the founders, it would be political speech.

The funny thing about the recent court's strikedown of campaign finance limits was that the case was not brought over an ad, but a film with political content. When justice Roberts asked the solicitor general if there were any forms of speech the FCC could not limit under the law; the answer was almost none.

Pittsburgh Art Events: 1/ 22-23/10.

Friday

The Downtown Gallery Crawl for the winter is upon us, and the Cultural Trust is offering attendees a melange of stuff- some of which has been up for weeks, and some that is being newly unveiled for the event itself (5:30-9PM).

Space Gallery (812 Liberty Ave.) still houses the "Behind our Scenes" exhibit (curated by Laura Mustio & Nicole Rosato), which showcases the work of artists affiliated with local art institutions like the Mattress Factory and the Carnegie Art Museum. I attended the opening, and would suggest that the show is worth a quick run-through. The Pitt News has a write-up of the show here.

I've also seen PCA curator Adam Welch's collection of large assemblage pieces and other works at the 709 Penn Gallery. Welch has been quite busy trying to reconcile the perplexing dichotomies within himself and society (here's a review by Kurt Shaw). You'll have to see for yourself how he's managing. While you're at it, stop by next door (707 Penn) for a display of works by Anjali Srinivasan.

Wood Street Galleries hosts a genuine opening reception for a retrospective of works by Argentinian artist Martin Bonadeo, and Future Tenant has Do You Understand?, a multimedia exhibit on online communication, curated by Kim Rullo. Even though they opened this thing last weekend, you can get a "Sneak Preview" online at their official site. Meanwhile the 937 Gallery (on Liberty Avenue) has three full floors of stuff to take in, including Robot Resolution for the tech geeks, and the For Real For Real storytelling series for the literate nerds.

At 820 Liberty, Urban Tree Forge and Moxie Dada has its closing reception for Resolutions. Evidently the curators there are trying to get you to think, as they are advertising an "Exhibit challenging viewers to think about environment, sustainability, self government & control". Finally, you should make a point of stopping by Pittsburgh Tribune Review art critic Kurt Shaw's relatively-new gallery (805 Liberty Ave.). He's featuring "rare original prints" by French Expressionist Georges Rouault.


If you'd rather simply avoid the hustle-and-bustle of Downtown on a Friday evening, you can choose instead to go to Paper - series on paper by Kelly Blevins, Seth Clark, Joren Dykstra, Maria Mangano & Andrea Muha at the Gallery on Baum (4643) in Oakland. I've been tracking events there for a bit, and it seems like this is their first show that features local artists, so come out (6-9PM) and reinforce this new direction. There's a nice preview (and a couple of images) of this over at The Pittsburgh Galleries Blog.

Saturday

Your options seem kind of limited for Saturday. All I could find is Now & Then and Cubism Revisited, featuring the work of David Lewis and Terry Shutko respectively, opening at the Mendelson Gallery in Shadyside (2-5PM). It should be worth checking out.

(EDIT: There's also a show of drawings at the Panza Gallery: 115 Sedgwick Street in Millvale from 6-9PM. I feel terrible for forgetting this because it's an exhibition by folks I draw with most Thursdays. Hell, I might even have something in the show.)

Gumby Dharma At The Toonseum: Friday January 22nd

I'm not sure why, but Gumby always scared me on some level. To be placed in so convincing a place that is both of our world and yet so completely off was amazing.



Look at the intense sense of exploration and modernist joy in this little short. Very influential stuff, I would imagine.

"Art's animation work and personal brand of love of life has for almost half a century influenced millions of TV and film viewers and filmmakers across the world. A consummate storyteller, we capture Art's story as he reminisces about his long life and his vast animation work. In addition, the film will include short interviews with some of the contemporary leaders in the animation world who have been touched and influenced by Art's pivotal contribution to the genre. Highlight clips of Art's original, groundbreaking art films, Gumbasia and Mandala, will appear in the film as well as clips of some of Art's favorite Gumby and Davey and Goliath episodes.


Also included are new stop motion work, (directed/animated by Academy Award® Nominee Timothy Hittle) depicting 'interviews' with Gumby and some of the gang on their time with Art Clokey."

January 22nd, 9:00pm following the Cultural District Gallery Crawl
Suggested donation of 4 dollars benefits the ToonSeum.
Seating is limited.

The ToonSeum 945 Liberty Avenue Pittsburgh, PA 15222
(412)232-0199
joe@toonseum.org
Suggested donation of 4 dollars benefits the ToonSeum.
Seating is limited.

This filming was planned before Gumby's creator, Art Clokey's death at age 88.

Reality Break

Sorry for the interruption, unfortunately reality is knocking at the door again. It seems like the magic word among those in the know is Sovereign Risk.

Here a hedge fund guy who predicted our current mess and was evil enough to profit from it lays bets on the next big shoe to drop.

First came central bank induced real estate bubble, primarily caused by efforts to keep the Yen low through very low interest rates. Then when the crisis hit, instead of closing bad banks and bankrupt companies (most with political connections) came a decade's long series of bailouts, more and more monetary easing (the stuff that caused the bubble in the first place) and a cycle of greater and greater government stimulus spending on projects people didn't need and the government couldn't afford.

But now after more than twenty years of hiding and evading the pain with piles of government debt; the real pain may just be starting. Japan faces almost certain default or a period of drastic hyperinflation which will wipe out the last savings of it's citizens.