A very Venango Christmas

While trying to put together a gift guide to all things venango. I ran across these items! Phew. Who's shelling out these big bucks? And are they buying them for me?
Franklin,PA. Big Rock Bridge Co, 2 horses token
THE OLDEST KNOWN MAP OF THE PENNSYLVANIA OIL DISTRICT

A non local post

The NY Times has released its 100 notable books of the year. Mine didn't make it. Jerks. ;)
For the big kids in the audience, The Guardian in the UK has announced its bad sex in fiction award. Brando (yes, that Brando's), ehem, entry, ehem, made me guffaw aloud. Rushdie, Updike, and Marquez also make the cut, but my book doesn't. Jerks. ;)
Iron and Wine and Calexico are streaming live tomorrow night.

Revivial and Youth Gun Giveaway

Would that I was making this one up:
The Forest Area Baptist Church presents Dr. Bill Behrens for a Deer Hunter's Revivial and youth gun giveaway Sunday November 27th through November 30th. You can check out Dr. Bill's messages here, including "Keep Your Stinking Feet Out of My Drinking Water." I know this is going to be hard to believe, but he's a self-described fundmentalist. Tell me again why young creative people feel a bit, um, out of place in NWPA?

Sleep like a hobo in Titusville

Yikes! 11 days since a post? My face is red.
Want to spend the night like a real live hobo? Apparently Rep Peterson and the good people of Titusville think you do. "A total of $100,000 has been earmarked for the Oil Creek and Titusville Railroad (OC&T) to be used for its caboose motel at the Perry Street Station in Titusville....the recently approved appropriations bill funding the U.S. Department of Transportation, the Treasury and Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for 2006 contains funding for the caboose work . . ."

Additional arts related monies include:

$200,000 to winterize the Sawmill Center for the Arts facility in Cook Forest State Park, including funding that will be used to provide heating and air condition [sic] to allow for year-round use.

$200,000 for the Pennsylvania Lumber Museum in Galeton, Potter County. Funds will be used to support a 10,000 square foot expansion to the museum's visitor center, helping to preserve and interpret the colorful heritage of the Commonwealth's prosperous lumber era.

Huzzah for pork!

It's hard to go wrong with a Medville Trib story slugged with "Area artist’s zombie comics draw accolades"

New Oil and old Oil (music)

Local blogger checks in on the shooting during a Pittsburgh showing of Get Rich or Die Trying

I'm very pleased about the biodeisel plant being planned for the area - the people of Venango County have so long pined for big oil to come back and rescue us from ourselves - how wonderfully ironic would it be if the Oil in Oil City was enviro-friendly biodiesel.

Yikes - talk about counter productive synergy. After the lovely article about old time oil music performed by local high school musicians and special local guest stars, the Venango Museum chimed in with a me-too.:
"The museum is in the process of reissuing a French orchestra's 1962 recording of some oil-related tunes.

Larry Say, the site foreman at Drake Well and a recording engineer, is producing a clean master from the old LP, and Bates is tracking down the copyrights for the CD, which will hopefully occupy a spot alongside the Franklin band's efforts at the museum's gift shop."

Yes God Forbid we let an all local effort get some good news. How about an album of thunder-stealing music or a nice suite of jealousy tunes?

The Meadville Trib has a new website design being unvelied on Monday complete with RSS, but the nicest feature is the expanded photo section.

In non local news:

The NYTimes reports that the Fox-ification of PBS may have been stopped.

Google and Amazon are trying to come up with an I-tunes for books.