TSPGH: Randyland

Why did it take Dear Husband and I almost a decade to visit the iconic Randyland?

Thankfully dear friend C.M. came to visit, so we all went together.

Randyland is the brain child of Randy Gilson and his partner, Mac McDermott, Yinzers who started turning their house on the Northside and the lots, walls, and fences around it into a rainbow-hued wonderland of brightly painted found and re-purposed objects in 1995.

The only time this outdoor art installation has been closed was in 2019, when fans raised enough money to send the couple on their dream vacation, and in 2019, when Mac died of prostate cancer.

Entrance is free. Signs point toward local landmarks or say "welcome" in a variety of languages.

Randy(land) encourages visitors to take care of themselves, each other, and the world.

It was Mayor’s Award for Public Art in 2019.

RandyLand only "<3s hearts" / No Brains / Thinking / Only Stuff / Recycling / Finds / Repurpose SELF

There's a sandpit with toys and chairs if families want to come enjoy the outside.

Brains: Over Rated Not Reliable / Must be driven / Not Automatic / Beware Brains Break Very Often

Unsurprisingly, it's a popular destination for the selfie and Instagram set.

Here I was trying to capture the cacophony of crystal chandeliers on the pergola.

Pink flamingos. 'Nuff said.

Wall of mirrors.

Mannequins

We arrived at dusk on a Saturday evening and basically had the place to ourselves as the sun set. 

We stuffed some dollar bills in the "karma slot" and thanked Randy on our way out.

He was in his workshop, cooking up something else exuberant and playful.

That's so Pittsburgh.

Pittsburgh Bits & Bites tour: Brookline

 Dear Husband and I finally found a chance to use a Pittsburgh Bits & Bites gift certificate My Awesome Parents had given us for Christmas 2019 when another couple offered to go on a tour of the Brookline neighborhood of Pittsburgh with us. Named for the town in Massachusetts, it lies south of the Monongahela River, 8 miles due west of us in Munhall. The land was taken from the Native Americans living there by land grants after George Washington had some military victories in the 18th century. In the 19th century an incline made it easier to get to the jobs in the city, and then the Liberty Avenue tunnel opened in 1924 to ease travel. At its height, 30,000 people lived there. Lots of steel workers then lost their jobs with the mill closures in the 1970s, and today there are about 15,000. Brookline's motto is "Charm, Character, Convenience." We walked up and down Brookline Boulevard and enjoyed some of the businesses there in sunny early fall weather.

First stop was Pitaland, a Middle Eastern bakery and cafe founded by Lebanese immigrants 50 years ago, when they came for a 3-month honeymoon and got stuck in the United States when civil war broke out back home. Uncle Joe (pictured) grew the business into a local supplier of pita, and his wife, whom we met, still works in the kitchen making both traditional and new products for the cafe and grocery store. The oven gets 1000F inside, so the dough only passes through for 3-4 seconds before cooling on this mobile track and being packaged by hand. It was fascinating to watch the flat discs pop up into spheres under the extreme heat. They're shortly going to replace it with a larger oven to meet the demand. We tried fresh pita with hummus, and I bought some humus and tahini for home.

This is Engine House 57, built in 1908. It has beautiful architectural details. The tower on the left is not for watching for fires or ringing bells but for hanging the fire hoses, back when they were made of cotton and rotted if put away while still wet!

Next stop was the original Las Palmas location, where we each got one, super filling taco.

In the alleyway behind La Palmas, our guide, Emma, showed us the mural that local high school students painted to cover anti-immigrant graffiti from 2016.

The Party Cake Shop is an old standard which closed but then re-opened the weekend prior, which is why there wasn't much stock on the shelves yet. We were there to pick up burnt almond torte cupcakes. I learned that this staple Pittsburgh dessert was apparently the winner in a competition in the 1970s to use up surplus almond stock. They also claim to have the longest sprinkle ("Jimmie") according to the Guinness Book of World Records. And get a load of the stained-glass art on the walls!

We stopped in the local Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh--"free to the people"--and DH rented a couple of DVDs for TV shows that aren't available from our branch. Then it was on to Sal's Barber Shop, a time capsule of sports memorabilia and antique hair cutting paraphernalia, like ceramic shaving cream mugs. It's received a historical designation; he's just waiting for the plaque to arrive, although I'm not sure where he'll hang it!

"Little Sal" now runs what his father, "Big Sal" had started in 1947. After hearing stories about him cutting celebrities' hair when he worked in Los Angeles, we took over the back deck of 802 Bean Company, which served us coffee, tea, lemonade while we chatted, looked at old advertisements for housing kits from Sears & Roebuck, and enjoyed the view.

Then it was a hot slice of cheese pizza from Antonio's Pizzeria, which offers standard, vegan, gluten-free, and keto options. In addition to pinball machines, this poem by local legend Rachel Ann Bovier was hanging on the wall, "Antonio's":

Whatever you order

Pizza or Salad

Gonna take you back

To a wonderful ballad

That'll have you humming

Like a bird that sings

Because of the taste

That their menu brings

No comparison

To any other place

Because they put

A smile on your face

Thank you Antonio's

For being the one

Who has the best pizza

Under the sun

We ended the tour at Scoops Brookline, part of a local ice cream chain, where DH chose Banana Cream Pie, and I opted for Cider Mill, a cinnamon-apple seasonal flavor with donut chunks. Next time I want to try the triple chocolate Pittsburgh Pot Holes!

"Busy but good"

"Busy but good." This is how I have been answering the question, "How are you?" from friends and patients. In the last month since rotating off of two weeks of hospital service, I have done a lot of work and had a breast cancer workup (benign), but I also made time for relaxation, connection, and creativity.

I flew to Charlotte to visit my grandmother and managed to finish editing chapter 6 of my book manuscript, which is now 80% complete. The whole thing is due to the press by the end of the calendar year.

I also found time to see a movie in an actual cinema (Coraline); go to a baseball game and a picnic with work colleagues; attend a Labor Day cook-out; volunteer at the church lawn sale; host a friend from out of town for a weekend that included glass blowing and standup comedy (separate post coming); and host a small dinner party of my own for some of the new, young female faculty.

These 4 photos are from Robin Hill: A cultural and environmental center. Dear Husband and I attended an utterly delightful Thai lunch party and ate so much delicious food that I needed a short walk before sitting in the car to drive home. I found this green oasis 5 minutes from our hostess. We had to dodge the wedding party trying to take photographs in the gazebo, I wasn't wearing the right shoes, and neither of us had a head covering or bug spray (ticks!), but we walked doooown the East Beech Trail and back uuuup the Access Road for a 20-minute jaunt in the humidity that was just enough.

Last night we participated in a "happening" at the Garfield Community Farm. Above is their labyrinth. Below, DH played keyboard for the musical part of the evening, which was dedicated to "thin places" and fairies. It doubled as a birthday party for the woman standing in the center, so there was cake, too!

I had been assigned to the kitchen detail to cut up fresh tomatoes, eggplant, and jalapenos. There were also herbs plucked from the garden (sweet basil, holy basil, rosemary). Another couple handled the dough; then I assembled the pizzas that were baked in this oven by J. Unfortunately, I suffered from the capsaicin in my left hand for several hours afterward that soap/water, alcohol wipes, Crisco, and aloe vera couldn't help, only time. 

Finally, this evening DH and I were invited to a "friend-raising" event for the Bach Choir of Pittsburgh. It was held at the home of a friend on Grandview Avenue, the street that runs along the crest of Mount Washington and overlooks Downtown and the Rivers. Here we are on the uppermost deck. We had a lovely time meeting new people and are excited about the upcoming season.

"That's so Pittsburgh": I coined this phrase as a label for blogposts when we first moved to the city 8 years ago. One of the things I have learned about the Steel City is that it is a site of so many juxtapositions: gritty industrial jobs and gleaming financial buildings, latchkey kids who ate our leftover pizza and previously unknown connections when circulating in high society. I sometimes joke that I can't wait to be retired, so I can have more time to things like attend lectures and exhibits and concerts. But I don't want to wait for that kind of delayed gratification, so I try to celebrate the fact that we are lucky enough to live in a place that has more to do than any one person can: house concerts, Broadway, museums of every size, and a rotating cast of restaurants. DH and I try to use our time and privilege to enjoy a fraction of these opportunities when we can, especially when they bring us closer to friends and to each other.

TSPGH: At home in the Heinz History Center

Dear Husband and I have had a wonderful summer, although we each lost out on a week of vacation, I because I because of forgetting to block off my clinic schedule, he because of jury summonses (yes, plural). So we took mini-staycations. One day in June, we visited a little slice of Bavaria (click for my blog post), and then we went home and vacuumed/washed DH's car. One day in August, we visited the Senator John Heinz History Center (click for their official website), named for the US Representative and Senator who died in 1991 in a plane/helicopter crash over an elementary school. I do not remember this, but it must have been a big deal at the time.

DH and I had each visited the Heinz once or twice with out-of-town guests or for specific events but never together. specifically to look at the exhibits. So I decided to take advantage of the "three for free" offer that made the History Center, the Andy Warhol Museum, and the Children's Museum free for the month of August in celebration of their being named in the top 5 for their categories in a USA Today poll. (Pittsburgh was the only city to have such a good showing.)

First up, lunch at  Eleven, the classy joint next to the Heinz where we celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary (the steel anniversary in the steel city). Just kidding--Open Table let me book a table for two at an eatery of the same name in Dublin, Ireland! The one in the Strip District isn't open for lunch. Thankfully I realized my mistake the week before from the reminder email and pivoted to Kaya, a Caribbean fusion restaurant. Delish.

Then it was on to the museum, where we joined the masses--apparently more than 60,000 people visited during the month of August this year! DH decided he wanted to see the set and props from Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, so we explored almost the whole 4th floor over the course of the afternoon.

The true museum to Mister Rogers' Neighborhood is in the Fred Rogers Institute at Saint Vincent College in nearby Latrobe, PA, where he grew up. I believe the set pieces at the Heinz used to be at WQED Studios in the Oakland neighborhood where the show was filmed before being moved to this section of the Heinz, which is like a free-for-all to showcase the variety of their collections. For instance, the fashion case is currently displaying some of Fred Rogers's clothing, like a bathroom, this one-of-a-kind stole, and of course cardigans.

There were lots and lots of other collections represented, mostly with a grouping of items and short labels but not the whole narrative explanation or fancy staging you would get in a dedicated exhibit. Below are a shot of the "healthcare" group with a scale, a nurse's uniform, and some medical paraphernalia. On the right is the "public safety" group showing a policeman's uniform and a submachine gun from the prohibition days.

The Heinz also collects the history of the region's various social and cultural groups. Above are a Czech costume, a gilded painting of St. Wenceslas, and marionettes. Below are furnishings from a now decommissioned synagogue.

There's also a large room on the 4th floor demonstrating yet more of their collections, such as how they store paintings, furniture, big objects like cars, and lots and lots of ceramics and glassware.

Of course, it wouldn't be the Heinz History Center without an exhibit about Henry J. Heinz (1844-1919) and his famous 57 varieties of pickles and other condiments. There's a historical section complete with life-sized diorama depicting how he started selling fresh vegetables as a child, a section on the company's influence in other countries, several of their advertising campaigns (such as the little green pickle pins), and a big wall with sample jars and labels from the earliest decades to the recent past that was my favorite part.

After a short break for a snack back at the car, we tackled the exhibit on glass. From some of the descriptions, I guessed this might have been put together in the 1990s. Regardless, it was well done, explaining the different ways that glass is made (did you know panes of glass used to start out as large blown tubes that were then cut open into rectangles??), the vast variety of ways glass is used for high and low technology, and of course many kinds of decorative glass art.

Cheers from the streetcar in the lobby!