Thursday, Jan. 31:

Check out meeting of important people at Club Cafe, an acoustic set opening for Andy Davis starting at 7pm.

Geno’s in Lawrenceville feature live music every Thursday and this week experience Cynical Anthropologist, all I know is they cover Franklin’s Tower, and Lovelight and that’s enough for me. 9PM

Garfield Artworks hosts the lead singer from The Ataris Kris Roe is playing the entire Blue Skies, Broken Hearts record acoustic. With Unlikely Japan, The Saturn Five, and Instead of Sleeping. 8pm

D.J. Drama-J at Warehouse Cafe in Bethel Park every Thursday.

Friday, Feb. 1:

Eat a veggie dog and chill with Brad Yoder at Franktuary, starting at noon.

Take a ride dahn the Mon Incline to Carson St. and head over to Diesel to check outThe Incline and then SchmarxTown Melodies
, both these opening bands seem odd for the featured act Carmen and Camille. Very interesting.

Ben Hackett plays the early show at Club Cafe, doors at 6 show at 7. $12 with special guest Tomayko.

There is a cancer benefit at Town Tavern featuring Clark Slater, Bill Deasey, Tres Lads,& Rob and Greg of The Clarks. This benefit is for Ella Rose DePew, a 1-yr old girl fighting rhabdomyosarcoma — a form of cancer — in her leg. I guess a few months ago her family had a benefit for her and some jackass took off with the donations so this is another try to raise some needed money. Great line up for a great cause!

Get your jam on with Forth River playing tonight at MoonDogs in Blawnox. 9PM

Saturday, Feb. 2:

If EMO is your M-O then head down to Diesel Saturday starting at 5pm. The Morning Light and Cloverleaf are the features.

Garfield Artworks offers up Gina Holsopple and Emily Rogers starting at 8PM.

Check out the very interesting lookingLollipop Factory at one of my fav’s Z-Lounge on Carson.

If I missed something cool going on this weekend let me know in the comments.

Friends and I attended the debut of Rona Mark’s Strange Girls at the Melwood Screening Room for two reasons: a) The description of the movie was the most intriguing and macabre of the three films shown on opening night b) we’d be steps away from the party refreshments after the movie.

I didn’t mind having to wait in line at the entrance to the Melwood Screening Room. It gave the event an air of exclusivity. However, once we made it through the doorway, there weren’t separate lines for will call tickets and tickets to-be-purchased on the spot and the result was a little bit of frustration and congestion. Additionally, the nice women working were (doing what they were asked to do I’m sure) trying to up sell (asking people to purchase ticket packages for the entire festival), which delayed our entrance even further. Once we made our way in and began to walk through hanging strips of film and filmy drape, I was impressed by the obvious amount of work that went into creating an environment befitting this film festival.

3RFF Goodies

Attendees got some interesting swag on the way into the theater. Most notable: we each got a different movie on DVD from the Film Movement, a CD of new music from WYEP, and a Kodak fun saver camera (real film—WOW). I don’t remember the gift bag being as substantial last year.

Director Rona Mark’s storytelling ability and dark sense of humor were evident at the outset of Strange Girls. A doctor titillated by porn, cross-dressing, and auto-erotic asphyxiation accidentally chokes himself to death while masturbating to all three. We come to find out he is the head of a psychiatric hospital housing the twin girls around which Strange Girls is centered. Although Mark does a formidable job of creating tension and shocking her audience in later scenes, I thought the opening scene seemed disjointed and almost overkill. A “this movie is going to be weird” set-up isn’t necessary because she does such a great job of making f*cked up the new normal…according to twins Virginia and Georgia anyway.

Novice actresses Angela and Jordana Berliner were compelling and completely believable in their roles as twin sisters who do everything in synchronization and speak to no one in public. Andre DeLawrence Rice, Jr. played the role of the boy that compels Virginia to try and escape her sister’s grasp and he played it well. The rest of the supporting cast was average. I couldn’t get past Kasey Daley’s Pittsburgh accent to genuinely assess her performance. While I know there is a strong regional dialect here, too many “yenz’s” and “an’ats” were sprinkled throughout the dialogue and made her speech seem forced. Overall, great film and impressive for Mark’s first. And did I mention it was filmed in Pittsburgh? You’ll recognize familiar places in Bloomfield, Swissvale, Polish Hill, and New Kensington.

The Great Lakes beer and CoCo’s Cupcakes were tasty and a nice change from the Penn Brewery and Big Burrito catering combo that seem to be more and more common at Pittsburgh events. Last, but certainly not least, New Invisible Joy played for a bit at the end of the evening. Unfortunately, not many people went back into the screening room to see them perform, but I did notice a lot of people listening and wonder who was playing. I think they’re great and sorely underrated as a regional band.

“I am not a success yet”, Valentino Achek Deng said. He was responding to a question from an audience member at the American Shorts Reading Series about when and if he would go back to southern Sudan. He recounted a conversation in which father (his) told son (Valentino) to “go away and come back when you are a success and wearing a suit”. Valentino came to Pittsburgh’s Hazlett Theater in that suit last night to talk about escaping his village during the Second Sudanese Civil War, arguably one of the bloodiest wars of the 21st century. For many of us, survival would have been success enough, but not for Valentino. He is pursuing a degree in International Relations at Allegheny College and has started a foundation to create educational opportunities for Sudanese both here and abroad.

Driven from his village and his family by rebels at seven years old, he talked about living as a refugee for the better part of ten years. One of the Lost Boys, he hiked thousands of miles across Ethiopia and Kenya and moved from internment camp to internment camp as the war raged on. The child of a polygamous family, he spoke of the 41 brothers and sisters he left behind and how he feels he can make a difference in their lives by being here in the U.S. He is soft-spoken. He is unassuming. He is gracious. He is none of what I think I would be after having seen what he’s seen. All of his experiences are chronicled in Dave Egger’s latest book What is What. Eggers was on-hand yesterday evening to add an interesting third party perspective to Valentino’s tale. They traveled back to Sudan together this past year and had slides and video to punctuate their descriptions of Marial Bai, the village where Valentino was born.

I have peripheral knowledge of the religious and tribal conflicts in Sudan and most of what I know concerns the genocide in Darfur. The media and celebrity spokespeople have called attention to those displaced or killed by Arab militias in the Darfur region so the issue is never far from our collective consciousness. In my mind, Darfur and Sudan had become synonymous. The truth is, they’re not. I could tell Eggers was intent on making this distinction when a question was raised at the end of the program about predictions for the future of “Darfur and Sudan”. He was quick to ask “Which one?” and when the questioner said “Both”, he seemed disappointed. I sensed that both Eggers and Valentino feel it is important to acknowledge that the Darfur conflict is just one chapter in the country’s long history of violence and subjugation.

I’m left to wonder why we as Americans have only become concerned with the welfare of the Sudanese over the last several years. Is it because enduring and sustained genocide is almost too unbelievable and uncomfortable for us to acknowledge in light of the fact that we haven’t intervened in a meaningful way until now? The U.S. government did broker a peace agreement between north and south in 2005, the terms of which give the South autonomy and encourage the merging of military forces and sharing of oil revenues. We can only hope it is adhered to and that the South is able to secede in 2011 as the agreement specifies.

Kudos to the American Shorts Reading Series for this and the many other intriguing and informative programming they’ve brought to Pittsburgh over the years. I know that the Pittsburgh Lecture Series has assumed responsibility for the series, but it was the brainchild of local writer and artist Suzanne Pace and she should be commended.

Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers

Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers Dirty Ol’ Fall tour stopped by the ‘Burgh last night at Diesel. This was my first visit to Diesel since the Nick’s Fat City days and while the remodeled look is fresh the place doesn’t seem to set up as nice for concerts and definitely has more of a “club” feel than the old hot spot. Some of the intimacy was lost with the show being all ages so adults wanting a drink had to stay upstairs in the balcony section. The crowd seemed a bit quiet and was on the smaller side for this venue and this band.

On tour with their newest release Glassjaw Boxer, another fine display of songwriting from Stephen Kellogg, the band played its usual mix of down home American rock and kept the crowd entertained with many songs from their old catalog. There were only several songs played from the new album and several sure to be crowd pleasers from Glassjaw Boxer such as Big Easy and Father’s Day were left out. On this album, Kellogg takes a personal look at his life both past and present and gives a lot of himself in these songs. As such, it would have been nice to hear a few more sprinkled throughout the evening.

The Sixers , featuring new guitarist Kyle Riabko, opened the show with a strong opening line-up of Flower in Rain, Maria and 4^th of July, a new song from Glassjaw Boxer. In this song, SK takes an introspective look at his life at a period in time and finds that while things may not be what he wished it will still be somewhat ok. The band didn’t seem to have the usual stage energy they are known for, maybe due to the venue or the crowd as previously mentioned. Typically SK6 is a must see live band to really get a feel for what they are about. Kellogg’s usual banter with the audience and other band members especially with Kit Karlson (The Goose) felt a bit rushed possibly due to the deadline imposed by Diesel so the “Club” crowd could come in at 10:00.

SK and the Sixers did seem to try and pick it up a bit at the end of 4^th of July and moved into a touching You’ve Changed followed by the high energy Wagon Wheel, the catchy Old Crow Medicine Show Cover and always a crowd favorite. One of the quirks of this band from Northampton, MA is its interlude of movie lines where band members take turns riffing on pop culture famous movie lines and then playing snippets of songs from the 80’s and 90’s such as Let’s Get Physical, 8675309 and Pour Some Sugar on me. This part is always received well by the audience who always seems to recognize the kitchy segment for what it is, just good fun. The talent and true nature of the band and it’s music doesn’t get lost in this divergence.

You Win, My Sweet Charade and Milwaukee, another new song from Boxer rounded out the first part of the show nicely. As the show wore on, Kyle Riabko displayed his chops and really attacked several songs including Start the Day Early. Kyle will be a great addition to the Sixers and will bring a lot to the table. He even took front stage and sang an original composition of his. The band then covered the hard rocking Rock n’ Roll All Night from Kiss.

SK6 finished off a nice performance by coming down from the stage into the crowd and doing an unplugged See You Later, See You Soon. They then performed the encore of the beautiful ballad Such a Way, a song which laments ….’that of all the pretty women out there she’s the only one who can move in just such a way that he falls more in love every single day’. And finally they finished the night off with Thirteen, a fun look back at a more innocent or perhaps a not so innocent time in life. Due to Goose’s knee injury he was unable to perform his usual “dance in his underpants” so the entire band closed out the song in boxers shorts to help The Goose out. Sixers fans, you will know what I mean. The rest of you will just have to go to the show next time to find out.

Overall Stephen Kellogg and the band delivered a fine performance although perhaps not one of their most impressive shows. Sixers fans in Pittsburgh were happy with what they heard. This is a band that is talented enough and good enough that more music lovers in the Burgh should tune in and begin to search out and discover the next time Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers come to town.

To learn more and to register, go to www.payoungprofessionals.com. I would go fast if you want to attend. The early bird registration fee is $85 and after Sept. 1 it goes up to $100.

I hope that they have a backup plan if it rains (read hothouse post by Alexa).