on the hillsborough

the back of the window in these pictures said: held together by God's grace and JB Weld...
this is also the time period that my car showed up on thereifixedit.com -- here


These pictures were taken by Angus, a couchsurfer passing through and staying in the Tampa area. Thanks, man!

The New Age Jalopy has been going strong(ish) for almost 4 1/2 years as of December. What a trooper.

three little birds

This window has a lot of inspiration behind it. I worked, since I got to Kentucky, basically, at a boy's home. I adore this job with every cell of my being. And this last Monday, I lost that job (for reasons I am not at leisure to discuss). It was crushing, but because I'd been playing this song in anticipation of the possibility of losing my job, it has helped me keep my spirits up. Thanks Marley! It really will be al'right. Sometimes you just need a reminder (and some good people backing you up, I hope).

a child's joy

i decided my car is in need of a mini overhaul and this is the first installment. the focus is on possibility, and remembering the joy of a child and the idea of "when i grow up" ... this great artist, *brian andreas says "when i grow up, i want to remember that i always wanted to be about a thousand different things & one lifetime didn't seem nearly enough. when i grow up, i hope it's at the very end when it doesn't matter anymore anyway" and i think that's a spirit that a lot of people lose as they age. i think we need to remember all the places we wanted to go, the places we can go, and the places we WILL go. we have so many adventures in front of us, and we should take them to the world and throw them into the wind, with the kind of wreckless abandon that comes with having embraced an idea with all of ourself and being willing to take a great risk for the great possibility of it.




*see story people for more info on that awesomeness

From Rosedart...Think of the Better Things!

belief, explored

what a man does says far more about what he believes than anything he says...doesn't it? if you see someone cold and hungry and you say, "go, be warm, and don't be hungry anymore" but you give him nothing, what good have you done? what have you shown him? and if you say you care more about other's well-being than your own, but you neglect to care for those who need care, haven't you been shown to be a hypocrite and a liar? if we say one thing, but are doing another, maybe we should take a good hard look at ourselves and see what we think we actually believe, and adjust accordingly. just some thoughts...

charlei

Woah, its been a while...From Rosedart...Beehive front window.

From Rosedart: Brillobox, Pittsburgh

Rosedart's Fliers and backdrop featured in the Pittsburgh Post gazette

Living with it, sticking with it: GLUE'burgh part 2 (Updated)
by Diana Nelson Jones/Sept 18


In the last post, I stated that Pittsburgh is sexy the way Paris is dirty.

What I mean is that "dirty" isn't the first thing anyone who hasn't been to Paris at least a few times would ascribe to Paris, just as "sexy" isn't the first thing anyone would ascribe to Pittsburgh unless he or she just gets it. A lot of people walk awash in Pittsburgh's sexiness because they have fallen deeply in love with it or been sucked in by its wiles, guiles and anti-styles. Other people get it because they delight in the quirky, the iconoclastic edge, the spurs and doglegs of our city streets, the honest gutsiness of its old-timers and the freakin' fantastic set of 712 outdoor stairways.

People who get it: The same people are intrigued by parallel universes, such as Alice's rabbit hole and Kinsella's infinite baseball game.

So many people want Pittsburgh to hold them because they love it. We now have as many former Pittsburghers as we have Pittsburghers, and they live all over the world. Germany, Arizona, Tangiers, Lichtenstein, the D.C. Beltway, St. Pete, Atlanta, Texas, Cranberry... and they devour our local news on-line, having wanted this city to hold them, too. Their love was a labor of contradiction: They couldn't live with it but they can't live without it.



The Great Lakes Urban Exchange (GLUE) is gearing up to inform public officials of the conditions under which its members would stay if.... and the reasons why they are staying put for now -- in Detroit, Cleveland, Buffalo, Pittsburgh and a few other cities.

Visit www.gluespace.org, where you will see a lot more than this intro:

Want to take the "rust" out of "Rustbelt"? Are you an advocate? A neighbor? A voter? A dot connector? The Great Lakes Urban Exchange needs your help to answer the question: what's right and what's wrong about my post-industrial city?

Join the movement for a “Rustbelt” Renaissance here on GLUEspace and via GLUE's offline activities in your sticky city. Become a member, tell your story, and help us collect, cross-pollinate, and replicate good ideas. Welcome to the mega-regional family.

Detroit's GLUE had its party in June. Pittsburgh GLUE held its "I Would Stay If..." party at the Shadow Lounge in East Liberty last night. It was one-part cocktail-mingle, one part workshop. About 120 people came and 75 of those chose to be photographed.

At every GLUE party in every Rust Belt/Lake Effect city, participants are being photographed holding their written responses to "I Would Stay If..." and "I Am Staying Because..."

The photo in this post (I know, it's too dark but hey...) is of Sarah Rubin, 27, executive director of the Hillman Center for Performing Arts in Fox Chapel. She held an "I Am Staying Because..." poster that read: "I am staying because I believe each neighborhood should have its own means of art." Obviously, she believes she can have some impact on that happening.

"I do," she said brightly. "I'm in a wonderful position to work with arts groups in many neighborhoods. I work with the African-American Music Institute in Homewood, the Neighborhood Academy in Garfield, and I can work with kids on how they wish to see themselves in the world."

Sarah, you are a re-enlivening person who makes me glad to be alive in the 'burgh.

Next, you will meet Michelle Coker, Melissa Osiecki and Carrie Hagan, but before I begin deliberating on the next installment and take care of a lot of other pesky chores of the workday, I want to leave you with the message on a flier I saw at the Shadow Lounge last night:

"The NAJP presents...We aren't waiting for the politicians! Change begins in Pittsburgh! Love, Rosedart."


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Posted Sep 18 2009, 11:05 AM by Diana Nelson Jones