Pittsburgh Girlie

Ladysmith Black Mambazo

Last night I went to a concert. I bought tickets on a lark. I knew I had heard and liked this group. What I didn’t realize was how much I had actually already heard from the group. I was surprised how many people recognized their name, simply because I had just discovered them. I bet you’ve heard them too.

Here is a Lifesaver’s commercial that I know you have seen if you lived in the US in the 90’s.

Their biography is really long, so I pulled some of it over here for you.

The group has recorded with numerous artists from around the world besides Paul Simon. Some of these include Stevie Wonder, Josh Groban, Dolly Parton, Ben Harper, Mavis Staples, Andreas Vollenweider, The Wynans, The Coors and George Clinton. Their film work includes a featured
appearance in Michael Jackson’s video “Moonwalker” and Spike Lee’s “Do It A Cappella”. Black Mambazo has provided soundtrack material for Disney’s “The Lion King Part II”,  Eddie Murphy’s “Coming To America”, Marlon Brando’s “A Dry White Season”, James Earl Jones’ “Cry The Beloved Country” and Sean Connery’s “League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen”.  They also can be heard singing the theme song to a children’s tv show, in the USA, called “Land Before Time.”

You can watch/listen to the video for Land Before Time. (Really, I know you want to click. I know you watched and own all the movies too…wait, that’s just me? Crap.)

Anyway, the concert.

I was at first disappointed that there were no images or videos of birds or something to do with the songs being projected. After the first song I really appreciated it being just them on the stage. I could really feel the music. And it was obvious that they were having a great time. I remembered my mom telling me that her favorite concert was just the artist and his piano on the stage. That was Elton John and I bet it was like magic.

A few months ago I saw a concert that was similar. I saw Keller Williams. It was one man and lots of instruments. The concert last night with Ladysmith Black Mambazo was many men and one instrument. And it was simply beautiful.

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Bus Driver Win

I was over in the South Side the other day and saw a really impatient car behind a 54C that had stopped, people were coming off/getting on. The car behind just leaned on the horn. I definitely got a chuckle out of the impatience. Other people on the sidewalks were given it funny looks too.

Here’s how it unfolded:

1. Bus stops at green light to exchange passengers.
2. Car impatiently leans on horn.
3. Bus is done with passengers, light is still green.
4. Car, still impatient, leans on horn again.
5. Bus closes doors.
6. Bus sits there.
7. Car horn.
8. Bus sits.
9. Light turns yellow.
10. Bus pulls through.
11. Car stuck at red light.
12. And there was much rejoicing!

That was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. (That last sentence was probably an exaggeration.) But, I mean it’s really up there with the time I was helping my mom move, driving a huge-ass truck for her, and I pulled into the center of two lanes that were merging because some jerkheads kept sneaking up along the sides. My brother high-fived me for that one.

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Snowmageddon

We severely underestimated how much snow was coming. Neither of us watches tv or news. I’m pretty sure my source for all things news is twitter. It really felt like it was all being blown way out of proportion. I’m sure that if I had turned on the tv and actually watched the news, we might have had a better clue of what the storm was shaping up to be. NOT US! Nope, we were going to be just fine, thankyouverymuch.

It snowed Friday night and most of Saturday. We ended up with something like 18″ – 20″ of wet, heavy snow. Saturday morning our power cut out. I tweeted it at 8:25 am. We both expected it to come right back. We actually both laid in bed, as still as we could, not breathing, waiting for it to return. The sound of the VCR whirring back to life did not great our still and quiet world. Yeah, we still have a VCR. What?

He bundled up to shovel. I bundled up to take pictures. We fought about the camera’s lens freezing. Typical stuff really. I won and took pics until my battery died. But I’m still to lazy to pull the pics off the camera. He shoveled our sidewalk, both neighbors’, and up to their doors. Really it’s the least we can do since Bill is always mowing our lawn and trimming our hedges. Sue is always feeding me or looking after the house. We have such lovely neighbors. As a thank you, Sue made us breakfast on her trusty old gas stove. Yay for hot meals.

After all that fun we did the only thing we really could. We went back to bed. I am a champion sleeper. Champion! But by 4 pm even I was not tired and also bored out of my skull. We heard a truck drive by making some kind of mumbled announcement about being without electricity and heat, should go to the municipal building, something a phone number. I couldn’t hear it all because the cat was purring loudly in my ear. Stupid cat. She just wanted us to stay and freeze probably.

Oh this is when something in the basement started beeping. Talk about fun. We both thought it was a carbon monoxide detector. Scary! Until I remembered that we don’t have one. It was the Fios battery finally dying. We decided to pack some stuff while it was still light. (Some stuff is; 3 days worth of clothes, pillows, blankets, soda, board games, and you get the point.) We’re a block from the municipal building, so if it was a wash we could walk back. It turned out to be fun. So we hung out and played games.

Around 8pm they moved us to Word of God Church, again right around the corner from us. The Red Cross brought cots and pillows/blankets. There were a lot of nice and helpful volunteers. Plus we all chipped in carrying cots down and setting things up. We were warm, fed, safe, and entertained. It was a pretty fun time actually. More people showed up and we all made sure they had what they needed. It was oddly comforting to be community oriented in that moment.

We heard that that power was back around 1am Sunday. I wasn’t able to sleep so I was reading when the volunteer fire fighters came in to tell the Red Cross people. Some people wanted to go home. We wanted to make sure that our power was back. They drove some people home, past our house, so they could check for us. How awesome is that!

We ended up getting back home at 2. A block from our house the power went back out. So.Not.Funny. Because we were in a volunteer fire fighter’s truck we got the inside scoop. Duquesne Light had cut power again because so many transformers had been blowing. It was back on by 3 am.

I must say that I am incredibly grateful for all the emergency workers, fire fighters (especially the volunteers and the people that stayed beyond their shifts), police, road crews, dispatchers, and anyone one else that coordinated efforts to help out. I’m grateful for the Red Cross for organizing a place to put us all and providing whatever comforts they could. I have never been on this end of community help and I have a brand new respect for everyone involved.

I should also thank my twitter peeps for checking in on me and offering places to stay.

Thank you.

Now to go about digging out our driveway and alley…

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Tweet-Up

I know you guys love to get together and hang out; sports and beer are a bonus. I also know these tweet-ups are definitely not in short supply. The great thing about when we all get together is that we are generally celebrating or contributing to a cause.

A ton of people, I’m sure, went to Las Velas last night and helped raise money for Make Room for Kids.

I hope you’ve marked your December 6th off for the next great community event tweet-up. @pgha has helped pull together a food drive party with OTB Bicycle Cafe. I know it’s going to be a fantastic event and I know that you will all be there, can in hand. There will be food, football, beer, and prizes.

So, go read this and plan on helping out like the fantastic Pittsburghers we all are!

If you’re interested in other tweet-up opportunities I suggest you take a look here.

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Happy Thanksgiving

I am thankful for you. Without you we would not have raised over $3000 for Christmas Crazy. Lots of Pittsburgh kids will be waking up Christmas morning to presents. Some of them may know they came from the kindness of strangers and some will believe they came from Santa. What’s the difference really?

Our next mission is thus: You, Me, We will be raising significantly more than $3k. This time the goal is $10K and I honestly see no reason why we won’t meet or exceed this goal because we are Pittsburgh and it’s for the kids. Skip your afternoon coffee one day and throw in $5. Head on down to Las Velas on Saturday and get your drink on. Buy a WearPittsburgh t-shirt. Read here for more details.

The Mario Lemieux Foundation is involved and now Ikea-Pittsburgh has offered to donate the furniture, design, and assembly of the room. More awesome Pittsburghers contributing.

We all know how wonderful The Children’s Hospital is here. Families from all over bring their children here because it’s one of the few places that can treat them. Not only will our kids benefit from this room, but kids from all over will get a chance to be kids.

Some back story: A few months ago we were all voting for The Children’s Hospital of UPMC to win a Microsoft Game Room. Can you imagine how fantastic it would be to play some video games for a few hours when your used to being stuck in bed because you’re sick. Unfortunately Pittsburgh did not win, but I am certain that the kids in the Children’s Hospitals that did win will full appreciate this room.

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Only In Pittsburgh

Last week-ish I ego-surfed and discovered that one of my pictures from my Flickr account was posted on a Pittsburgh photo blog. I had changed most of the permissions on my pictures to Creative Commons, so I wasn’t upset. More like flattered!

I suggest you guys check out this page, there’s lots of neat pics posted in there. Also they’re on twitter. So check it out.

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Christmas Crazy for Kids

A few weeks back (was it really a month ago!?) Our friend Burgh Baby was in a contest for Best Local Blog over at The Bump. We all worked our fingers down to bloody nubs vote vote voting for her. She really does have a fantastic blog and if you haven’t, you should go read through it. Also her kid; Adorable!

Winning Best Local Blog led to another contest that was bigger and ended up being really stupid. We all pretty much agreed that we wouldn’t stoop to the cheating ways of some of the other blogs (endorsed by the authors or not).

From the start Burgh Baby had plans for the winnings. The $1000 prize money was going to buy Christmas presents for kids in need. Since she dropped out of the contest to save our poor bloody nubs, among other reasons, and she/we/you/and I are raising that cash! Go read her post and donate $10. $10 is one day’s lunch. Bring a PB&J and give some kids The Christmas Crazy they deserve!

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