May 15, 2008

Art Group Marks 50th With Free Exhibit

The city that gave the world Duane Michals (but not, despite rumors, Andy Warhol) is still nurturing artists.

And some of the most active artists from the Mon-Yough area get a chance to display their talents to the public this weekend when the McKeesport Art Group holds its annual exhibition at Jacob Woll Pavilion in Renziehausen Park.

The judged competition, which opens to the public tomorrow night, comes as the art group celebrates its 50th anniversary.

. . .

Current president Jan Catalogna, who recently retired from PNC Bank, says the group was founded in 1958 with help from one of McKeesport's favorite artists, the late Jeff Madden.

Madden, former art director of the G.C. Murphy Co., became famous for his paintings depicting McKeesport life in the 1950s through the '70s. Many of his prints still decorate the walls of homes and offices in the Mon Valley.

"Jeff was so popular in the city that a group of people who were interested in art got together and said, we should form a club," Catalogna said.

Like many of the art group's 40 members, Catalogna is a painter --- she works in acrylics and oils on canvas and on the blades of old saws, and many of her paintings depict wildlife.

But other members enter their photography, pen-and-ink or charcoal drawings, or sculpture.

At least one member, Dan Piesik, is a blacksmith, and another Ray Spisak, carves in wood using a chainsaw. Weather permitting, Spisak will be demonstrating the art of chainsaw carving on Saturday or Sunday.

. . .

A few members, like Ray Madden of North Braddock, worked in commercial art during their professional lives. Madden ("no relation to Jeff," he says, "but everybody asks that") designed and painted outdoor advertising displays and vehicles for clients such as Cott Beverage and General Nutrition Center.

You can also see his work on the outside of the Dorothy's Candies building in White Oak.

Madden, who works in oils, watercolors and pencils, doesn't have a favorite subject.

"All kinds of things catch my eye," he says. "I've painted in Arizona, including scenery and (portraits of) Indians, and I've painted landscapes around Pittsburgh."

The ages of participants in this weekend's show range from students at McKeesport Area High School --- who are exhibiting a series of theater-type posters --- to retirees like Catalogna's mother, Ruth Burton, who recently celebrated her 90th birthday.

"Mom liked to draw from the time she was in school, and she still has notebooks from her high school days," Catalogna says. Burton has two landscape paintings entered in the show.

Crafts --- including quilts --- are also on display.

Entries are judged in different classifications according to the skill level of the artist --- amateur, experienced or professional --- and paintings and other "flat" works are judged separately from three-dimensional art, like carving and sculpture.

This year's judge was Peg Panasiti of the Latrobe Art Center, who evaluated more than 130 works entered in this year's competition.

. . .

The exhibition opens to the public at 5 p.m. Friday. Awards will be distributed at 7 p.m., after brief remarks by city Mayor Jim Brewster.

Art group members will then host a free reception and buffet.

Admission is free, but selected artworks and crafts (including the theater posters made by MAHS students) will be for sale, and the art group will also sponsor a "Chinese auction."

Hours are from 12 to 8 p.m. Saturday and 12 to 6 p.m. Sunday.

The Jacob Woll Pavilion is located inside Renzie Park, just off University Drive near the entrance to Penn State Greater Allegheny campus.

For more information, call Catalogna at (412) 469-2710 or Madden at (412) 824-6646.

. . .

P.S.: By the way, I don't know much about art, but I know what I like. And the Tube City Tiger really likes this painting (at right) by Ray Spisak.

In fact, I think I heard him say it was "g-r-r-r-eat!"

Or maybe that was some other tiger.

Posted at 3:11 pm by Jason Togyer
Filed Under: Events, News | No comments | Link To This Entry

May 13, 2008

The Shrill Voice of the People

Sometimes commenting on local news is like shooting fish in a barrel:

. . .

All Fall Down: The building that collapsed on Sixth Avenue last week was owned by something called "Comfort Air Products Inc.," which according to the Daily News has not returned repeated calls seeking comment.

"Comfort Air Products" is actually the Edward L. Kemp Co. on West Fifth Avenue, which as the Almanac has reported before, owns many derelict or dilapidated buildings in the city, including, according to Allegheny County records, the Penn-McKee Hotel.

Kemp's advertising plays up its long heritage in McKeesport. It brags that the company has been "heating and cooling the Mon Valley since 1888."

But allowing buildings throughout the Downtown area to deteriorate --- and fall down --- doesn't do the city or the Mon Valley any good.

If you're installing or repairing an air conditioner this summer, and you call Kemp, ask them why they own so many buildings in the Mon Valley ... and also ask why you should spend your money with them instead of someone else.

No, McKeesport isn't a great market for real estate development, but it seems unlikely that (for instance) the Penn-McKee site --- one block from the marina and the Palisades, and next to the Jerome Avenue Bridge --- is completely unmarketable.

. . .

Les Taxis de la Médiocrité: A French company has acquired Allegheny County's principal taxi operator:

Veolia Transportation is the North American arm of Veolia Transport, based in Paris. Founded more than 150 years ago, Veolia operates cabs, buses, rail and maritime transportation services in 25 countries and employs more than 72,000. The North American unit does business in 18 U.S. states, including major markets such as Boston, Denver and Baltimore.

Pittsburgh Transportation, based in Manchester, is the county's largest privately held transportation group. It operates 685 cabs, limos and buses; employs more than 300 people; and engages 450 independent contractor/drivers. It also owns Peoples Cab, Express Shuttle, Embassy Coach/Limousine Service, Star Paratransit, PTG Charter Services and Freedom Coach. (Tribune-Review)

There are several things to note here.

First, taxi service in Allegheny County is terrible. It's almost impossible to "hail" a cab in Pittsburgh, even at one of the hotels.

Instead, you have to call and make a reservation (usually with Yellow Cab, which has almost no competition), but they don't always show up, especially if you're not going someplace they want to go.

And forget about getting a cab from the Mon Valley, unless you're going to the airport. They won't come here. That's why illegal jitney services thrive in McKeesport (the big gathering spot is across from the Foodland at Fifth and Coursin) and other communities.

Because Yellow Cab already bites the wax tadpole, it's hard to imagine that their service is going to get any worse.

That's good news, because Veolia doesn't have a great track record around here. As the Almanac noted back in January, Veolia is the operator of the sewage treatment plant in Elizabeth Township, which has been dumping millions of gallons of untreated human waste into the Youghiogheny River.

In fact, officials from the Municipal Authority of the City of McKeesport are now in negotiations to take over sewage treatment in Elizabeth Township.

Maybe MACM should get ready to take over the taxi franchise, too. "Today the toilets, tomorrow the taxis! Viva McKeesport!"

. . .

Whatever Floats Your Train: Meanwhile, sewage isn't the only thing that goes down the drain. So does tax money. Last week, local high school students were given a tour of Maglev Inc.'s labs at the city's industrial park:

"Floating trains ... sounds like science fiction!" South Fayette High School sophomore Eric Wise declared when he and other gifted students visited Maglev Inc. facilities in McKeesport.

"Well, I saw the work with my own eyes," he said after touring the RIDC Park shop that holds the first 22-foot-long sections of guideway ever built in the United States for a magnetically-levitated, high-speed train line. (Post-Gazette)

Sorry, kid, but it's still fiction. Despite millions of dollars of taxpayer money, Maglev Inc. has not produced as much as a kiddieland train at Kennywood. After more than a decade of "work," they don't have a single public demonstration site.

Worse, private money is exiting the magnetic-levitation business. While the kids were goggling at the Maglev dog-and-pony show, two of Germany's biggest manufacturing companies announced they were abandoning their own maglev efforts.

The partnership between ThyssenKrupp AG and Siemens AG has developed only one operational maglev train line, in Shanghai, China ... and those trains run 80 percent empty, according to the Asia Times.

Reports the newspaper: "Travelers often complain that the maglev train doesn't really drop them off anywhere convenient and they still have to take a taxi to their destinations."

When big companies can't make a technology successful and abandon its development, it's usually a sign that technology is not commercially viable.

Yet the U.S. Congress wants to invest another $90 million for "nationwide research and development of maglev technology."

Though McKeesport gets positive press from being affiliated with magnetic-levitation technology, there might be better places to spend $90 million in public money.

. . .

It Should Have Been Orange: Speaking of passengers not going anywhere, Pennsylvania Department of Transportation has developed a new logo in response to a directive from Gov. Ed Rendell that all state agencies incorporate a keystone into their symbols.

The Almanac suggested a logo to PennDOT, but our idea (crossed shovels in a cluster of potholes) was completely ignored.

Posted at 07:30 am by Jason Togyer
Filed Under: Sarcastic? Moi? | eight comments | Link To This Entry

May 12, 2008

The Cranky Old Coot

A couple of political things are bugging me. Let me set up my soap-box here on the corner of Fifth and Walnut, hitch my pants up to my armpits, and say a few things:

. . .

First, for God's sake, stop forwarding Internet hoaxes. A friend just sent me a photo of Barack Obama supposedly holding a telephone upside down. The accompanying email said: "When you are faking a pose for a camera photo opportunity, at least you can get the phone turned in the right direction! And he wants to be President? Dumba--!"

Uh, yeah. Obama doesn't know how to talk on a telephone. And the person taking the picture also doesn't know how to use a telephone, and didn't notice that he was using it upside down. Right.

Doesn't anyone realize how stupid that sounds?

For crying out loud, it wasn't even a good photo-editing job, and when I searched Google for "obama" and "phone," the very first result was a discussion of the fact that the picture is a fake.

It also wasn't an original idea. Someone used the same joke against George W. Bush several years ago.

You might think that things like this don't make a difference. But they do. How many people think that Obama is a Muslim based on unattributed emails? Plenty of people in West Virginia, according to a story in the Financial Times.

(I'm personally trying to figure out how people are holding onto that stupid idea apparently at the same time that they're complaining about Obama's Christian pastor, who married him and baptized his children as Christians.)

For the love of Mike, if something seems too good to be true, check your facts first. And please, don't send me anything else about how Hillary Clinton is a Communist, or how John McCain had a daughter out of wedlock, or how certain oil companies are funding terrorists.

All of those emails are crap. Learn to use Google. It's your friend.

. . .

Second, several people have recently told me that they're not voting for anyone for president, because all of the candidates are the same, or because there are no good candidates.

Really? There are no good candidates?

• One candidate is a decorated Vietnam War hero who spent five years in a prison camp, returned, and has served honorably in the U.S. Senate, where he's fought the White House and powerful lobbyists to ban the use of torture and regulate campaign financing.


• Another candidate is a distinguished lawyer who has held her own against a 15-year-long smear campaign and was elected twice to the U.S. Senate, where she has battled long and hard for the causes she believes in, especially where it comes to women's rights.


• The third candidate is the son of a single mother who lifted himself up from the streets, became a community organizer, labor activist and state senator, and has been a tireless critic of the war in Iraq and tax breaks for the wealthy, among other issues.

And out of those three candidates, you can't find one worth voting for?

Sorry, but in my opinion, these are three important and interesting Americans. You don't have to agree with every single position they hold to find something admirable about at least one of them.

Frankly, this is the first presidential election in my memory where you have a chance to vote for someone, instead of against the other person.

As for the charges that there are no substantial policy differences between the candidates, Sen. McCain thinks that the United States should have a permanent lasting presence in Iraq. Sen. Obama thinks we should start bringing U.S. troops home as soon as possible. Sen. Clinton would design a plan for bringing home U.S. troops in stages.

If you've got a son, daughter or friend serving in the Middle East right now, I'd say those are pretty big damned policy differences, no matter what side you're on.

McCain believes that the free market works best with minimal regulation, and that lowering taxes on corporations stimulates the economy. Obama and Clinton say that unregulated markets have the potential to hurt consumers, and that taxes on corporations have been lowered too drastically already.

Again, if you don't think those are substantial differences, I don't think you can tell the difference between Shinola and the other stuff.

Look, I'm as cynical as the next guy, especially if the next guy happens to be George Carlin or Dennis Miller.

But saying that "there are no good candidates" or "there are no differences between them" isn't cynical. It's just pure laziness.

My grandfather and great-grandfathers came over here in the bottom of leaky boats --- women were spit on in the 1910s --- African-Americans were shot at in the 1960s --- for the right to vote. To say that it's not worth voting or that there are no good candidates is shameful.

And yes, I have tried decaffeinated coffee. Why do you ask?

Posted at 11:29 pm by Jason Togyer
Filed Under: Pointless Digressions, Politics | two comments | Link To This Entry