Pitt turns 250 and I "celebrate" by tripping over a chunk of concrete, twisting recovery into an attempt at a fucking moon shot. These are the results:

 

The face washed off. My right hand is sandpaper; extent of damage to be figured out when I wake up tomorrow.

Andy Alm unleashes the awesome might of his accordion on Liberty Avenue. Excerpts filmed while waiting for a Deftones soundalike to open up for a The Cure cover band at Pegasus.

Andy Alm unleashes his accordion on Liberty Avenue:

Most of an Andy Alm cover of the "water world" music from the original Super Mario Brothers (!!):

This man - and his accordion - made my week. Maybe even my year. I gave his accordion case all of the coins in my pockets, took his name, and can't seem to manifest his Facebook profile. But he does seem to have a YouTube channel (linked above) and had no objection to his performance being YouTubed.

I've always had a fondness for street musicians. Street musicians who delve beyond the constraints of the acoustic guitar, that is. Those who embrace other, more alien means of expression. I've heard the violin, the saxaphone (always a favorite), the trombone, the gospel singer (heard but not seen and to great effect)... but never.... an ACCORDION?!

Wow.

Andy Alm exudes the best possible Awesome at the outer orbit of my greatest hour of need. There is no better omen.

00:06 <@solios> xeno: dude, I was waiting outside a GAY BAR to go see a COVER BAND. And this guy cut loose.
00:06 <@solios> it doesn't get awesomer.
00:06 <@solios> ever.
00:06 <@xeno> asdjklfasdjklf
00:06 <@xeno> you mean you saw that LIVE.
00:07 <@solios> I shot that video.
00:07 <@solios> see the account name? :)
00:07 <@xeno> @_@
00:07 * xeno falls right the fuck over
00:07 <@solios> i gave him all of my pocket change, took his name, shook his hand and thanked him for making my week.
00:07 <@xeno> fucking \m/
00:09 <@solios> :D

A Korean War era F-86 Sabre flies lead with an A-10 Thunderbolt and an F-15E Strike Eagle. Video taken with Canon PowerShot A95 video option, hence the shakiness.

A few images from the annual Wings Over Pittsburgh airshow:

   
   
   
   
   
   
 

Thanks to Martin from CLP IT for bringing me along. There was all manner of awesome to be had, and there'd be many more images available if my camera batteries hadn't gone blooey.

Either somebody forgot this fun fact, or they got tossed. Given the goods (boxes and furniture) and their condition (decent), it could be either. Whatever the situation, this Pile Of Crap is in the process of acquiring severe water damage - the temperature has gone above freezing and it's all getting nailed by chunks of ice and snow.

   

   

Since the Pile Of Crap is blocking the band entrance to the Lava Lounge, I'm sure something will be done about it shortly.

My neighbors rule.

The text? "I don't have a problem with homosexuality. I have a problem with homosexuals."

Go Santorum.

=====

Cropped (actual camera size) and sloppily straightened out and tweaked for Iverson.

Youtubed video of the Steel City Derby Demons Full Contact Musical Chairs performance @ Ceremony, 20061001.00:30.

(Disclaimer : I have nfi how long youtube holds on to uploaded video.)

The Oakland EB is a video game store. It sells video games. It's conveniently located across the street from The Upstage (that's the 3600 block of Forbes Avenue, kids).

• It sells video games. If you want to buy current video games, this is good.
• It sells used DVDs for some reason. Since the Oakland Dave's is out of business, I suppose it picks up the slack.
• "Instant" gratification. See cons for the reason behind the quotes.
• Convenient location. It's a quick walk from the museum, and a quicker walk from any Oakland- or Downtown-bound bus. It's a hell of a lot easier to get to than Target.
• It's not The Record Exchange, so there's no suspicious eyefucking or record store snobbery.

• "Instant" gratification means sales tax. You'll get that anywhere.
• Since they're a small shop, and nowhere nearly as cool as the old locally owned and operated video game store that used to be behind the Oakland Beehive, they only carry the current and reasonably current stuff.
• The service SUCKS.
  • TWENTY MINUTE WAIT IN LINE. Mostly because the previous exchanges all went like variants of mine:
  • (beginning of POS) "Do you have a discount card?" "No." "Do you know about them?" "Yes.*" "Do you want a discount card?" "No." "Are you SURE?" "YES."
  • (games) "We have this used. Do you want it used?" "No." "Are you sure?" "Yes." (blank stare from clerk, glare from me)
  • (systems) "You want a used one?" "No." "You want the mini-DS?" "No." "It's the same price!" "NO." "Are you sure?" "YES."
  • (end of POS) "Do you want to reserve any games?" "No." "Do you want to be informed of any upcoming releases?" "No." "Are you sure?" "YES."**
• There are two POS kiosks and what I can only assume are two employees. In reality, the staff consists of one lard-encased shampling heap moving in slow motion, slightly outside of our timestream. His "job skills" consist of ramming through the training script that has been branded into his skull by some EB training thing. He probably has lidlock scars under his eyeballs. The other "employee" is an incredibly lifelike mannequin. It may have blinked once in the entire time I was in the store. Eight people in line, each suffering five minutes or longer as the shambling heap labors through its script, and this mannequin sat there and did exactly nothing. I'm embellishing this point only slightly - at one point, he got up (much to the surprise of everyone else in the store, shambling heap included), wandered off, came back with a pricing gun or packaging tape gun (I didn't care enough to discern), and returned to his seat. He stayed put until I left the store.
• The store layout is hostile to the shitty service described above- there's no way to get to the goods without nudging through the line, and the line queues up between a rack of Z-grade DVDs nobody would look at twice, and a rack of PS2 games that may one day enter service as paperweights. The space between the racks is barely wide enough for your average gamer-type: I may be getting squishy in my old age, but my complexion is decent and I'm positively svelte compared to these people.
• Did I mention that the service SUCKS?!

It's conveniently located. Prices (everything is cheaper on Amazon) and "service" (hah!) more than make up for it. I'm shopping on Amazon and at Target from now on.

Under other circumstances, I'd be quite a bit less harsh on the employees. But man. Holy CRAP. I've never had service this sluggish and halfassed - and that includes the asshole at the Crossroads who was just standing around behind the counter doing nothing. When berated by one of his coworkers ("Hey, we've got customers!") the asshole's reply was "So? They'll wait. :P." The jackass wasn't there long, but these EB drones feel like lifers. If I'm going to pay for attitude, I'll take the tongue-in-cheek snarikness of the crew at The Apple Store in Shadyside. They're prompt, courteous, and all that other good stuff. These EB guys got none of that. You want to sit on your ass while your coworker fields eight customers over the course of twenty-five minutes? Fuck you.

Harsh? Definitely. But I don't plan on going back, so I don't feel a need to pull my punches.

* Every store has these damned things now. If I actually took every card shoved in my face I wouldn't have any room in my wallet for my ID, Debit, or health insurance cards. Amazon is less hassle.

** Remember when you could walk into a store, pick out what you want, take it to the counter, pay for it, and leave? So do I. I seriously fucking miss that shit. I like to get-and-go- I'm seriously not into this debriefing/interrogation shit every place that isn't the 7-11 does these days.

While taking pix of some of the Giant Inflatable Things surrounding the building, this dude Larry - an extra in the Ray Liota CBS thing that's being shot here today - recognized me as one of the cast members of Something To Be Desired.

Freaky.

I did my first Something To Be Desired shoot in awhile today, with another one tentatively scheduled for this weekend. It's a quick little snip and I don't know when it will be worked into the series, but the props are authentic and I sure as heck didn't smell like a breath mint.

<3 Justin.

.... is a centralized list of what bands are playing, where they're playing and when. I say this mostly because (a) there isn't one and (b) I found out about yesterday's Gang Of Four show at around 0130 this morning. You can imagine how upset I was about this.*

I know that the City Paper technically lists shows, assuming the promoters bother to run ads. Club Cafe and The Garfield Artworks both have websites, but neither has an RSS feed and aside from the occasional Red Elvises appearance, most of Club Cafe's gigs fall under the broad umbrella of "that damned hippy crap."

The 31rst Street Pub lacks a web presence and while Mr Smalls had the Gang Of Four show, they aren't exactly what you could call "conveniently located." Not by a long shot. PGHGoth technically lists shows, but it also technically lists club nights - and in both cases the site experiences the traditional Pittsburgh Goth Scene sense of Selective Reality (read: accidental or deliberate omission).

Of course, I'm one of those sore bastards who wasn't old enough for the Next Decade and who remembers seeing shows at Metropol, Laga and the Millvale Industrial Theater. :P

The above-mentioned sites are either selective or venue-specific - in the end, about as effective as the City Paper or standing in front of The Rex reading fliers at three in the morning. Which is to say, not terribly.

* There was shouting and arm-waving, followed by copious drinking and a swing through the Smiling Moose, which is getting reviewed whenever I get around to documenting The Bar Scene.

Effective today, fellow AIP CAM survivor Justin Kownacki has started releasing episodes of season three of his web series, Something To Be Desired.

I have a bit part in the series, and am looking forward to seeing what sort of impact my character (who admittedly isn't much of a stretch for me) has on the rest of the cast.

The series is set in Pittsburgh, with several non-fictional Pittsburgh locations featured throughout. It's local, it's about a radio station, all the cast members and crew that I've met are incredibly cool people, and I'm in it for a few minutes - all nice healthy reasons to go check it out.