Mad Max, Beyond Thunderdome

I’m pretty sure ESPN need to rethink their titletown selection, and right quick.

There are some kick ass signs in Pittsburgh…

… signs that define our city, both socially as well as economically. Many of them tell stories of our past, and some even point to events yet to pass. Many also can serve the starving artist, as iconic images of reference. Luckily, you don’t have to go out and chronicle them all yourself. They’ve all been painstakingly laid out for you already by a group called The Pittsburgh Signs Project.

The Pittsburgh Signs Project has also just put out a book, Pittsburgh Signs Project: 250 Signs of Western Pennsylvania. The book is filled with some amazing full color photos taken from area artists, and is definitely a coffee table gem if there ever was one. The book is listed at $29.99, but you can find it on amazon here for just over 20 bucks.

On top of that, they have a facebook group, and here are a few links to some sweet flickr feeds on signage of the Burgh:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/47211597@N00/sets/72157614779435468/
http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=pittsburgh%20signs&w=47211597%40N00

All in all, I was very taken aback and impressed with such an undertaking. I now have new respect for the signage of the Burgh.

_Rob

It takes a lot to shake me up.

That being said, I was left in a very Micheal J. Fox-esque state after my visit to The Warhol yesterday. I went with a few friends to catch The Vader Project before it left the burgh. The project was quite amazing, but that’s not the story I’m telling here.

So we started from the top floor of the museum, electing to catch what we came to see last. Alarmingly, however, it was what I saw on the top floor that blew my mind. The Exhibition on display happened to be The End: Analyzing Art in Troubled Times. The show featured many artists, all depicting their individual renditions of what they deem to be art in foreboding economic times. I was actually pretty excited to see the results.

One of the very first works we came to was The 7 Deadly Sins, by Lukas Maximilian Hüller. Seven insanely well constructed, and ultimately disturbing, panoramic scenes floated before us. Based on The Seven Deadly Sins and the Four Last Things by Hieronymus Bosch, Each panorama depicted an extremely elaborate, Rocky Horror type view of its subject. Great care had evidently been taken to set up these complicated, macabre scenes. I was impressed, but moreover, I was shaken up.

Anyways, I’ll leave it up to you, the reader to decide your own take on these. Be warned, some parts are extremely graphic.

1. pride
2. lust
3. wrath
4. sloth
5. avarice
6. gluttony
7. envy

You can see a list of Hüller’s work here.

_Rob

Oh yeah baby, I’m getting me a pair of these!

This Wednesday, CMU’s “Sneakerology 101” class is putting on an event called Kicksburgh. They’ll be selling sneakers, art, and other kick ass stuff. There is also a Soles4Souls shoe drive, so bring your unused sneakers if you got em!

Finally, they have 101 pairs of “Reebok Reverse Jams” for sale. Pictured above, these shoes were designed by CMU’s sneakerology students, with heavy influences from the classroom, and Andrew Carnegie himself. I’m gonna try and snag a pair if I can! You can read more about them here.

KiCKSBURGH

April 15^th, from 6 – 9 pm
Skibo Gym, CMU

Alas, I will be on sandy beaches in Hawaii this week, but everyone else should check this out. Refresh Pittsburgh and On the Fridge, LLC. are putting on this nifty one day conference centered on web design. It will showcase some serious talent from the Pittsburgh area, as all the speakers are local to here. If you want to keep up on the web design scene here in the burgh, this is the place to go.

Info

webdesignday
Saturday April 4, 2009
8:30am – 5:00pm
Left Field Meeting Space
116 Federal St.
Pittsburgh, PA
$40 per person

Looks like they are limited to 85 registrations, so hit it up quick!

_Rob

Welcome to The Pitt

This is unbelievably über kickass. Bethesda’s Fallout 3 has set their next expansion pack, titled “The Pitt” in post apocalyptic Pittsburgh. If you look at the pic above, you can clearly see that this is one of the sister bridges, possibly the Roberto Clemente. It looks like the jacked the city up a bit though, as the Highmark building looks like its too far east, and what is possibly the steel building is way too close to the bridge…

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FlashPitt08. The first “first Flash-centric New Media conference” for Pittsburgh. The hype was there, looming like that large elephant in the room. The burgh’s first chance to show its true colors regarding Flash and technology. Could this conference stack up?
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