PA Day 6- Delis, Dinosaurs, and Deceptive Art in Pittsburgh
Spent the full day in Pittsburgh, which was great and definitely not enough time to see and do every cool thing there. I honestly didn't know much about Pittsburgh before I got there other than that there used to be steel mills, so I think was picturing much more of a run down old mill town than the fun, vibrant city I encountered. I'm not saying there aren't run down mills there, just that it isn't close to the main attraction.
The first thing I noticed about Pittsburgh is that it's huge. There are a few different neighborhoods all divided by waterways, each of which could be there own small city sort of like a smaller version of the boroughs in NYC. The second thing I immediately noticed about Pittsburgh was how hilly it is. It's a very vertical city, and it reminded me a lot of a more blue collar Amalfi Coast in the way the houses and neighborhood were sort of build up a cliffside.
I got my first coffee of the day in Up Town Pittsburgh at a place called the Big Dog Cafe. I liked it a lot but I think that was only 10% because the coffee was good and 90% because of this painting:
With my first little burst of caffeine energy, I went to the Warhol Museum. I hadn't known that Andy Warhol was from Pittsburgh and it was very cool getting to see so much of his original artwork. It's also a very well organized and curated museum. It's quite large (7 floors!) and the the top 5 are historical retrospective of his work, the second floor is special exhibition, the first floor has the lobby and gift shop, and the basement has a craft station so you can make DIY pop art.
Because the museum is organized chronologically it was really fascinating to see Andy Warhol's trajectory of being a great painter, going completely up his own ass with unwatchable (but innovative) videos with famous friends, and then come out the other end as a great painter again. The special exhibit was also pretty amazing. It was on a guy Farhad Moshiri from Iran who works in a number of mediums, but primarily made large pop-art style works using hand painted beads. These pieces would have been impressive enough if they were just drawn or painted, but the forethought involved in color coding and arranging pins was mind-blowing to me.
Neighborhood called the strip, very brooklyn-esque where you can see the process of gentrification sweeping the old ill buildings and turning them into cafes and record shops and vape stores. Not necessarily a bad thing though and I really enjoyed my coffee from 21st Street Coffee and Tea. Happened to meet a local comedian at the cafe and started talking to him, his show is an intersting format i haven't seen yet where he does a bill maar like hot button topic panel witha a mix of comics and audience members, wish i could have stuck arounf longer to see it.
After coffee I went to the crnegie museum of art and then quickly found out that it is also the museum of ntural hisroty. Great art, edionasausrs
The special exhibit was also pretty amazing. It was on a guy Farhad Moshiri from Iran who works in a number of mediums, but primarily made large pop-art style works using hand painted beads. These pieces would have been impressive enough if they were just drawn or painted, but the forethought involved in color coding and arranging pins was mind-blowing to me.
After the museum I went to a neighborhood called the strip. It was very Brooklyn-esque in that you can see the process of gentrification sweeping the old mill buildings and turning them into cafes and record shops and vape stores. Not necessarily a bad thing though and I really enjoyed my coffee from 21st Street Coffee and Tea. I happened to meet a local comedian at the cafe and started talking to him. His showhe runs is an interesting format i haven't seen yet where he does a Bill Maher like hot button topic panel with a mix of comics and audience members. I wish i could have stuck around longer to see it.
After coffee I went to the Carnegie Museum of Art and then quickly found out that it is also the Museum of Natural History. Tickets cover admission to both museums which is very cool, but I had only allotted myself enough time to really dig into the art. When the museum was first founded it was one of the first American museums to really highlight modern and contemporary art as opposed to old masters. They've tried to maintain this tradition, but they also do have a few rooms dedicated to older medieval and ancient arts. The special exhibit was all works primarily by Black artists about racial tensions and there were some pretty powerful pieces as well as just a stunning portrait of Michelle Obama (which I forgot to photograph). I think the piece that moved me the most was a series of photographs of real descriptions from other museums on pieces from Africa, annotated by the artist to highlight all these huge racial biases casually interspersed in the language. I really liked the whole museum, and I wish I could have seen a bit more of the Natural History element because they had dinosaurs and as every pre-adolescent boy knows, dinosaurs are cool.
After working up an appetite from all that art appreciation, I went to a local favorite Primanti Brothers. It's a very simple menu of big meaty sandwiches and burgers, but it's all done very well. I got the Joe, Dick, and Stanley which is capicola (spicy ham), turkey, roast beef, and provolone on two fluffy lightly grilled pieces of Italian Bread. It was monstrous, but perfectly satisfying. The best part: the fries are just in the sandwich so you don't have to expend precious calories picking them up and eating them in between mouthfuls of sandwich. It's very streamlined. There was literally a line coming out of the door when I got there, and, after having tasted it I, can see why it's such a popular place.
After dinner, I said goodbye to Pittsburgh and went back to my Air BnB to get some writing done. While I was writing, I watched the newest Patton Oswald Netflix special, Annihilation. It's kind of incredible, because he talks extensively about his wife's recent death and struggling to cope with that and explain it to his young daughter, and somehow it's still laugh out loud funny the whole time. It's very life affirming to see someone come back from the brink like that. Highly recommend.
Favorite Random Sightings: Sassy Sensations; Big Bad Buggies; Not Just Tanning (sounds suspicious); Dirty Frank's Laundromat; Thai Me Up
Regional Observations: Maybe it's something to do with the history of the state, but it seems like there is a much greater percentage of old men who look eerily like Ben Franklin in PA than any other state I've been to so far.
Albums Listened To: Flower Power: Time of The Season (Disc 2) by Various Artists; Freedom Sounds- A Tribute to the Skatalites; From Far by Pilfers (those last two albums played out alphabetical order because I made a mix up with my iPod)
People's Favorite Jokes:
What's the difference between a hippo and a zippo? One's a little lighter.
My friend Mike's mom's favorite song!
