Tag: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Look What Steve Bought at Bloomfield Groceria

We were sad when a local neighborhood business on Cedarville Street, Groceria Italiana, closed their doors last summer..

But here’s the good news!

It  has recently reopened as Bloomfield Groceria.  It’s really close to Steve’s work so he picked up this wonderful ravioli and brought it home.

We are thrilled they are in business under new proprietors.

Especially after tonight’s dinner of their delicious Spinach and Cheese Ravioli. I sautéed baby spinach- you can see it peeking out underneath.

And I grated some fresh Parmigiano-Reggiano on top. I asked Steve if he could  to pick up mushroom ravioli for dinner next week.

Here’s an Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article written by Bob Batz, Jr., about the new Bloomfield Groceria  

https://www.post-gazette.com/local/neighborhood/2019/03/25/Bloomfield-Groceria-Italiana-Italian-grocery-store-Cedarville-Little-Italy-opens/stories/201808050006

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A Bodhi Wind Original

Here is my friend Vincie in my living room, holding a Bodhi Wind original portrait painted in 1965,  She had just picked it up from the framer’s where Jennifer Panza had helped her select the frame and matting. Vincie brought it in and we unwrapped it so I could admire the framed portrait.  I’d gone with her to help get it framed, weeks ago.

It’s a really good story.

Five years ago last April, I posted about the Extraordinary Art of Bodhi Wind  

In that post I wrote about my friend Steve reading an article in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette by Joe Smydo about what to do with the artwork of an artist who had passed away. When he read the article, he kept asking me if my friend Vincie knew Bodhi Wind since he’d graduated from her alma mater, Perry High School.  After a couple of weeks of him asking if I had checked with Vincie if she knew Bodhi Wind,  I finally remembered to ask her.  “Vincie, Steve has been on my case to ask you if you knew a Bodhi Wind who graduated from Perry High School who was an actor in LA”.

Steve had mentioned the murals Bodhi Wind painted for the Robert Altman film 3 Women  No, she didn’t know him.

(Here is a NYTimes article about The Man Who Painted Robert Altman’s 3 Women by Jennifer Dunning. )

So a few days later the three of us are in the car and it comes up again.

Steve is determined.  Asks Vincie himself.  Turns out I messed up by asking about an actor when I should have inquired about an artist.

When we got home, Steve got on the computer upstairs and called Vincie to come and read the article.  And there was the missing clue.  Bodhi Wind had changed his name.  For more information it said to contact his mother Mrs. Kuklis.  Vincie said, yes, she knew him.  Yes, Vincie and Charles (Chip) Kuklis not only went to High School at Perry together but they were classmates in elementary school.  Steve was insistent that she must have known him and not only did she know him but they were very good friends in elementary school, too.

This past August, Vincie and her friend Maribeth were attending their 50th Perry High School Reunion. Over the reunion weekend, the two of them went to visit Mrs. Kuklis at her home.  Her granddaughter helped show them her Uncle’s artwork but before they looked at the work,  they sat in the living room.  Vincie said that Chip had painted her portrait when they were in high school.  Mrs. Kuklis said “I have it.”

Not only did his mother have the portrait he painted of Vincie in high school,  Mrs. Kuklis had set in out on a special chair for Vincie to see, and Mrs. Kuklis asked Vincie if she would like to have it. Oh my!

What a gift!

Vince wth the original portrait of herself, painted by her childhood friend- Bodhi Wind/Chip Kuklis.  You can see his signature and the date 1965 

by Categories: Art, PhotographyTags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 16 Comments

Penthouse and Condo Views from Empire on Liberty Pittsburgh Magazine’s Ultimate House

Here’s the Post-Gazette article by Patricia Sheridan that my friend sent the other morning. Last week V and I toured the Pittsburgh Magazine’s Ultimate House penthouse and two of the condos in the fully restored and renovated old furniture showroom and warehouse Empire on Liberty.

All proceeds were given to Children’s Hospital Free Care Fund.

Just today, I realized I bought a carpet in 1989 at the former Roth Carpet Showroom which is now the available first floor retail space.

http://www.post-gazette.com/life/Buying-Here/2018/04/27/Buying-Here-Bloomfield-Empire-on-Liberty-condos-penthouse-office-retail/stories/201804290015

An article from Pittsburgh Magazine about the Ultimate House renovation

http://www.pittsburghmagazine.com/Best-of-the-Burgh-Blogs/Nest/November-2017/First-Look-Ultimate-House-Returns-to-the-City-with-Empire-on-Liberty/

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My Friend wrote “I made the papers without dying or getting arrested!”

He got my attention! 

(Anyone who knows Bill McCafferty will get it)

He texted me this photo first and wrote-

“Go ahead. Ask me where I got this!”

Our local paper is Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Hmmmm I had no idea, Bill. 

Then he sends photo #2. 

Check out Third Place

A winner of the caption contest 293. 

Artist of the cartoon-Stacy Inherst 

click Stacy Innerst Website to check out his illustrations


Congratulations Bill. Very exciting. So glad you are alive and not in jail. 

by Categories: PhotographyTags: , , , , , , , , , , , , 11 Comments

Dedication of “Keeping Tabs – A Holocaust Sculpture”- Pittsburgh PA

Sunday afternoon was the official dedication of the Gary and Nancy Tuckfelt  Keeping Tabs- A Holocaust Sculpture at the Community Day School at the corner of Beechwood Boulevard and Forward Ave.   The sculpture is a maze in the shape of the Star of David, created with glass blocks which are filled with six million pop tabs which took almost five years to collect , each tab representing a human life lost in the Holocaust.  Many people contributed time, money and effort to the creation of the sculpture and the  beautiful surrounding park.  Walking into the maze, one is struck by the magnitude of the horror of genocide, the number of victims is hard to fathom but the pop tabs in the glass blocks are a reminder of the millions killed.

The resident artist, Elena Hiatt Houlihan has been with this project since 2002.  Pop tabs were being collected since 1996 and Mr. Walter the History Teacher at Community Day School had aquariums filled with them when Elena arrived to help the student teams design the sculpture. Their original artist statement was read by her at the dedication ceremony today.

Elena had been a resident artist at Greenfield Elementary when I was the art teacher there and I remember her talking about the ongoing work of this sculpture and then funding and other circumstances delayed the completion.

It was a beautiful Autumn afternoon and there were speeches and prayers and an 8th grader played the violin.  A chill wind and shadows gave one a shudder and reminded those present of the significance of the memorial sculpture.   Never Forget.

Keeping Tabs Memorial (1)

I went up earlier in the day to photograph the memorial sculpture before all the people arrived.

Keeping Tabs2

Keeping Tabs close up

program

Violin Player

Bill WalterReceiving a standing ovation,  Mr. Walter comes to the podium to speakElena and Mr. WalterArtist in Residence Elena Hiatt Houlihan and  Social Studies Teacher Mr. Bill Walter who started the collection of the pop tabs when he was teaching the Holocaust to middle school students at Community Day School.

bill walter on Channel two

Elena and friends and family (1)

Article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette about the Keeping Tabs Memorial Sculpture Dedication, this time including Elena Hiatt Houlihan’s name

Keeping Tabs Memorial

One of the many many stones and bricks donated,
One of the many many, memorial stones and engraved bricks. each representing the accumulation of many donations, small, medium and large. I chose this one to photograph because for the inscribed words about “generations never born”- that message struck me.

Pop Tabs in Glass Blocks

filling the last blockThis block will be used for educational presentations.  I put a tab in and then asked the next woman if I might photograph her doing so and she agreed.

by Categories: Photography, Pittsburgh PhotosTags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , 28 Comments

Three More Days of the One-Woman Show, REMAINS, at the New Hazlett Theatre, North Side

My friend R sent me an article from the Pittsburgh Post- Gazette  by Sara Bauknecht, about “Remains”, a one-woman show  playing at The New Hazlett Theater on the North Side – Thought I might be interested in going. I read the part about going through boxes of memories and stuff from one’s parents and it piqued my interest.

You can read more about the star of the show, Beth Corning, at her blog

“This year’s offering is a one-woman show (starring Beth Corning ) made with Tony Award-winning choreographer/performer Dominique Serrand, co-artistic director of Minneapolis-based The Moving Company.”

and before you know it,  R went online and  bought us tickets.  I’m so glad she did.  It was excellent.  Powerful.  Graceful. Moving.  Evocative.

And it’s there for just 3 more days!!   If you live in Pittsburgh, you should make a plan to go this weekend.

We went to the performance Thursday night and stayed for the Talk-Back afterwards.

Beth Corning asked the audience if we might Tweet, Facebook and tell friends about “Remains” – (a Glue Factory Project) which is playing Friday June 7,

Sat June 8th and a Sunday Matinee at 2 (June 9th) when you pay what you can for admission.

R and I went to the lobby and then I wondered out loud how to blog about it and R suggested I ask to take a photo of Beth.  So we turned around and went back and I took a photo with my iPhone.

A nice man, Alex showed me how to take a panorama with my new iPhone  in the theater lobby and showed me where to stand in the corner.  A bit dark but fun. Thanks Alex

We headed to Market Square to La Cucina Flegrea where the kitchen had closed but served us each a bowl of delicious minestrone and some bread.

And if you don’t live in Pittsburgh, you could invite Beth and Dominique to come to your city. Maybe they will consider a tour!  The show’s theme is personal and universal simultaneously.

 

The New Hazlett Theater

Formerly the Carnegie Library  Now the New Hazlett Theater

Beth Corning

Beth Corning after the performance.

Remains PosterPoster in the Lobby

The lobby at the New Hazlett Theater

The Lobby of the New Hazlett Theater

Market Square

Market Square Scene

Minestrone

A bowl of minestrone at La Cucina Flegrea in Market Square, after the show.

by Categories: Photography, Pittsburgh PhotosTags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 5 Comments

The Toynbee Tiles in Pittsburgh

My friend Steve told me about a documentary he watched last Saturday night about the Toynbee Tiles.  Toynbee Tiles?  I’d never heard of them. The documentary is called Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles . It’s a film by Jon Foy and was chosen as one of the best documentaries of 2011 by Roger Ebert.

Turns out there was also an article in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette about the tiles downtown but I missed it when it came out.

So last Sunday afternoon, Steve and went to look for them.  We found three of the Toynbee Tiles. The first photographs of them were in the 1980’s so I am a latecomer to these mysterious plaques.  And I am intrigued by their placement in so many locations.

Find the pop top and the screw in this close-up.

A couple of them are paved over.  Chicago doesn’t allow them, they rip them up.  But in Pittsburgh they are there for pedestrians to walk over and cars to drive right on top of them.  It is a mystery who places the tiles but there are a lot of them in the world.  Right by the church where James and Laura were married in Columbus, OH at Third and Broad there’s another one and Laura’s seen it!  They are considered guerrilla art.  And a mystery!

 

 

You can see it in the crosswalk below.

 

 

 

An you can see the above tile in the crosswalk below.

 

 

Not sure why but I didn’t shoot the location of the third tile we just happened to find when we went back to the car.  

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Skywriting Over Pittsburgh -11 second video and a still image below

Looked out the back door window in the kitchen.  Saw the first letter “A”  started. Already on the “L” when I got out to the yard with the camera. After I took all the photos I googled to see who was having a sale.  Turns out an artist Kim Beck has the skywriting project as part of her  “The Sky is the Limit” exhibition. (click for article in Pittsburgh Post Gazette) Each part of the letter is a mile long. 

Scroll down for still photo.  Uploaded my first YouTube this evening so we’ll see how that works.

by Categories: Light in the City, Pittsburgh PhotosTags: , , , , , , , , , , , , 7 Comments