Free Halloween Mix, Titusville Sculpture, and Andy Rooney

Venangoland updates with a really nicely put together post:
We all have a vague impression of a “trust” being some sort of Bad Thing, highly illegal, somehow related to monopolies. But the legal construct of a Trust was invented by Franklin native S C T Dodd.

Thanks to the Titusville School District, the Titusville Council on the Arts and the John Nesbet and Sarah Henne Rees Charitable Foundation, Nicole Aul and Ivy Kuberry, two Titusville Middle School students have been captured in bronze by Jamestown, N.Y area sculptor David Poulin.



Given all that, the city will soon have no major bookstore Downtown, and Pittsburghers should tremble at the symbolism. What will out-of-towners think when they discover that such a center of history, art and culture doesn't have a big store with aisles and aisles of books, the latest literary magazines and political journals in its central business district?

There's a National Vocabulary Champtionship? Who knew?

Halloween Mix:
One of the great joys in my life is putting together the pre, intermission, and post show mixes for Theatre in the Little Theatre shows. Since Saturday's play was a spooky tale (Conor McPherson's The Weir) I put together somthing a little more cheesy (I mean fun) and thought I'd give you a little taste.

Carrie - Go -Go Rays
the Go Go Rays were an Erie ska band, which in their own words was "too punk for the ska kids... too ska for the punk kids".

Halloween - The Evangelicals

Don't Fear the Reaper - Blue Oyster Cult
I've got a fever and the only cure is more cowbells.

Monster - Big Jack Earl

Dance of Death - Calexico

Sympathy for the Devil - Jane's Addiction

Houdini's Box - Jane Sobule

Halloween Parade - Lou Reed
Summer 1989. Mark McClusky and I are playing volleyabll with two very lovely ladies from another school at Two Mile Run beach. Mark puts on Lou Reed's New York. Two older guys begin trying to pick a fight with us for listening to that "country shit". Irony has always been in pretty low supply here.

Halloween - Matt Pond Pa

Ghosts - Kronos Quartet
Scariest movie ever? Requiem for a Dream.

Halloween - Sonic Youth
The first junkie I ever knew turned me on to Sonic Youth and then later sold me his entire record colletion for a quarter an album. Some would say that I was taking advantage of a friend. I like to think of it as teaching a young man an important lesson about addiciton.

I Am Stretched on Your Grave - Sinead O'Connor

Finally, I'll leave you with the words of the sage Andy Rooney:
""One of the biggest surprises to me is Pittsburgh. I didn't know it's on an island, like New York City." Indeed.

Conor McPherson's The Weir in Franklin Saturday

This weekend, TiLT (Theatre in the Little Theatre) will be performing Conor McPherson's The Weir as a special Halloween treat. The performance is at Franklin's Barrow Civic Little Theatre (1223 Liberty St, Franklin PA 16323). Doors open around 7:30pm,and the cover is $3 with a cash bar. The show starts at 8 pm, has a ten minute intermission and runs about 1 hour 20 minutes (wihout intermission).

Conor McPherson has a knack for storytelling. And it is storytelling that is at the heart of The Weir, a chilling study in human nature and human relationships.

The ghost stories told by all but one of the characters in The Weir are personal stories, made more personal by how they deal with them. Jack (Michael Molitoris), Jim (Kim Tarr), and Finbar (Michael Dittman) are regulars in a local Irish pub owned by Brendan (Kevin Berry). Finbar, the local real estate magnate, has sold a house to Valerie (Amy Dittman), a woman from Dublin.

The stories in The Weir are creepy and entertaining, but there is a sadness inherent in them, because the men that tell their stories seem not to believe them themselves. A Weir is a dam, something that holds something else from overflowing, and it is Valerie's story that pulls down the Weir, injecting an emotional element into these men's lives - one that has never existed before. These are people possessed by the past - or rather by hallucinations, an eerie sense of things knocking in the night, and a phone call from someone speaking in the voice of dead child. No one leaves this play unchanged.

It is a beautifully crafted and compassionate piece, dealing with love, loss and loneliness. It works because one believes so intensely in the characters that one shares the experiences they talk of, because it contains at its heart a shattering event and because it demonstrates the healing potential of storytelling.

The Weir contains (lots of) adult language and may be inappropriate for those 16 and under.

In other news:
The Post Gazette profiles Erie-NY wineries

Joann Wheeler continues to more than earn her money - she's got a film competition in the works for Venango County!

Forest County Mural Restoration and the Wompus Cat

Las Vegas builder Steve Wynn jammed his elbow through Picasso's "Le Reve" worth about 139 million. Smooth.

I'm thinking "wompus cat" for Haloween...

Forest County's $850,000 courtroom renovation project included the $36,000 restoration of the two 10- 12-foot-tall murals of Ladies Justice and Liberty found under old wallpaper. Fiske and Sons Inc., an Erie company (who also restored Erie's 1867 Land Lighthouse) did the restoration work on the mural originally contracted to Henry Streiff of Franklin.

$ 10,000 arts grant and a pretty nice fez!

The Derrick mentions Oil City Arts Champ Joann Wheeler's artist meet up this weekend.

Appalachian Arts held a grand opening Saturday showcasing chainsaw-carved art. The project was funded by a $10,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Erie blogger Emma Steinfeld writes:
On Friday, October 20, 2006, Mary Doria Russell, author of A Thread of Grace, the 2006 One Book One Erie selection, will be hosting a writing workshop in the Admiral Room at the Blasco Library at 10:00 a.m.

I understand from speaking with those involved in the One Book One Erie project that there are still some spaces available at this event.


If you have to ask if a "Vintage Shriner's Zem Zem jeweled fez for the Venango County President of 1960." would make a good Chrsitmas present for me, well, then you just don't know me as well as I thought you did.

Lots of Pittsburgh news:
"The Kill Pit," an eight-hour drama series coming to cable's Spike TV, will film in Pittsburgh in early 2007.

Pittsburgh area artistLorraine Brinit Bush paints movie monsters. Shadyside's Gallerie Chiz opens Bush's first gallery show Friday, a Halloween-themed show that also includes puppets and masks by Cheryl Capezzuti.

City Theatre's seventh Young Playwrights Festival actually began last week, with readings of three middle school semifinalists, but it swings into high gear this week, with staged versions of the three winning middle-school plays. The high school plays follow next week. All four playwrights (one play is by twins) are girls.

On Saturday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., artists, comic creators, zinesters and "other crafty Pittsburghers" will showcase their work. Unicorn Mountain will debut a new art book called "Wolfman's Got Nards: A Compendium of New American Monsters," which features a new monster creation on every page. Then, from 7 p.m. to midnight, there is a hard-hitting underground music lineup with Don Caballero, Zombi, Black Moth Super Rainbow and Washington, D.C.'s the Apes.

Artist meet up in Oil City, CBGBs, and the Pig People

The Oil City Arts Revitalization committee will host a working breakfast meeting of area artists Saturday October 21 from 9:00 am to noon in the Great Room of the National Transit Building in Oil City. All artists and supporters of the arts in the region are invited to attend. The heart of the meeting will consist of a brainstorming session on what the area needs to help artists and the arts flourish. Special interest break-out groups will develop plans for the visual arts, performing arts, public art, etc. The agenda also includes updates on the progress of several projects:

the development of the Transit Annex,
the Sound Garden,
an artist-in-residence sculpture project,
an expanded Pipeline Alley performance series,
new teaching opportunities for artists,
business and marketing courses for artists,
a planned business/chamber/artist partnership that will allow artists to showcase their work in the business community, and
a digital filmmaking competition and festival, planned for September 2007.
RSVP requested to 676-5303.


?Love has dropped out of the Clarion University Hip Hop Symposium on October 18th. DJ Kool Herc has taken his place.

In honor of the 100th anniversary of the Gearing Building in Franklin, its current tenant, DeBence Antique Music World, will host an open house from 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 4, at the museum.

Organizers are asking anyone with ties to the building to share photos and stories by sending them to the museum to be displayed during the reception. DeBence Antique Music World, 1261 Liberty St., Franklin, 16323. More information is available by calling the museum at 814-432-8350.

As you undoubetedly are sick of hearing, CBGB is closed.I saw a lot of shows there and still have nightmares about the restroom.



Who has haunted Hart Chapel for so many years? Why does the ghost of a Japanese kamikaze pilot wander Founders Hall? Find out at “The Ghosts of Clarion University” walking tour Oct. 26 at 7 p.m., with tours leaving every 20 minutes from Moore Hall.

The tour is free and open to the public. No pre-registration is required. Participants are asked to gather in front of Moore Hall.

For additional information contact Dr. Todd Pfannestiel at 814-393-2761.

A follow-up to the Ghost Walk is scheduled for Halloween, Oct. 31, at 8 p.m. in Hart Chapel, when Pfannestiel will present “Ghosts of Clarion – Uncensored,” as part of the UAB Speaker Series. The presentation is free and open to the public.

You can check out the story of the ghost in Clarion's Chapel here

The Meadville Tribune profiles the ghost that is said to haunt the Hotel Conneaut:

Local folklore holds tales of Elizabeth, the young bride who was supposedly burned alive in the devastating 1943 fire that destroyed a large portion of the Hotel Conneaut.

The Northwestern PA paranormal group has a nice listing of local hauntings. Being fond of the "Pig People" legend, I moved it to Pittsburgh and included it in Small Brutal Incidents

Cattle Call auditions for the Erie Playhouse will be held Saturday December 16th at Noon and Sunday December 17th at 6:00. The two shows I'm psyched about seeming are The Piano Lesson – performance dates: February 2 & 3 (Premiere Weekend), 8-11, 14-18, 2007 and Copenhagen – performance dates:March 22-25, 29 – April 1, 2007

NPR streamed The Hold Steady show last night...I was volunteering. I've got to get my priorities in order...

National Novel Writing Month is almost upon us...

Sienna Miller and Meadville, NBA graphic novels, and Haley Bonar

Off to the Venango Catholic used book sale, but thought I better get a post in first.

Wait, did I saw I was sorry that I missed Erie's Mysteries of Pittsburgh Sienna Miller tempest in an IC can with "Who the hell does this Sienna Miller skank think she is? " Normally, I wouldn't have spent two seconds on this, much less blogged it (star acting badly! Shocker!") If not for the fact that Chris Potter relates the incident back to Allegheny College in Meadville:

Running down the provincials is an easy way to do that. I knew kids who did the same thing in college by making fun of the “townies.” (The town in question incidentally, was Meadville, where Miller’s father lives today. So there!)

Chinese-American comic artist Gene Luen Yang's American Born Chinese is the first graphic novel ever nominated for a National Book Award.

In heavy rotation on my MP3 player is Haley Bonar who has left her major label and now is, "working two jobs and doing a DIY release again, but I can’t say I have any regrets.”
She'll be in Pittsburgh on the 24th at Quiet Storm, 5430 penn ave, with Lisa Germano. The show starts at 8pm sharp

Once, when teaching a course on music in novels, I used Ondaatje's Coming Through Slaughter, Morrison's Jazz, Kerouac's On the Road, Doyle's The Commitments, and Hornby's High Fidelity. It was a damn fine class, but the students roundly despised High Fidelity (most of them, I suspect, blew off the book and watched the film). The Harvard Crimson feels the same way about the musical theatre adapation of Hornsby's tale of record store clerks and lists:

High Fidelity is the most egregious insult to popular culture ever to grace a modern theatre and anyone who sees it betrays his entire generation.


The Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk , whose exquisitely constructed, wistful prose explores the agonized dance between Muslims and the West and between past and present, on Thursday won the 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Straub Beer, the end of applefest, and poets and ?love at Clarion

Cites and Bytes @ Bailey Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania Bailey Library's blog is two years old!

Clarion University will open its 2006-07 season with The Threepenny OperaOct. 10-14 at 8 p.m. in the Marwick-Boyd Little Theatre. Tickets for the performance are $11 for adults and $8 for children. Tickets for Clarion University students with valid student identification are $5. The play contains adult language and themes. Parents are strongly cautioned that it may not be suitable for young children.

C.H.U.D. spills the dirt on the filming of Mysteries of Pittsburgh

It's more than just a fungible setting and, frankly, there aren't a long list of literary or cinematic works that draw inspiration from the Steel City.

Peter Greene has been doing quite a bit of work on Venangoland. A new post on the anniversary of our local mall and an updated sidebar including links to new Venango blogs (has the time come from a Venango County Blog page ala erieblogs.com?) and artists with local ties.

via Erieblogs:

Lyons Den Productions is proud to announce the lead cast and primary shooting location for their first feature film "SCHISM", directed by John C Lyons. Production on the project officially began September 30th and will continue for the next couple months at Brevillier Village. on East Lake Road in Erie. "SCHISM" focuses on Neil (Terry Smith), a man with dementia and Alzheimer's disease, who enters a nursing facility after a hip fracture. Neil is unhappy with the changes occurring in his life and surroundings, but soon discovers comfort and friendship in the residents and staff. He deals with the reality of no longer being a priority in his family's life as well as the death of a close friend in the home. As his dementia progresses Neil wonders if everything he's seeing and hearing is really happening. The film covers a mix of genres: drama, comedy, romance, and thriller.


The 17th Annual Silberman Recital Series at Allegheny College will open on Wednesday, Oct. 11 with a performance by Trio Lyra. The concert, which begins at 7:30 p.m. in Ford Memorial Chapel, is free and open to the public.

One of my very favorite poets, Julia Kasdorf, is coming to Clarion University as part of The Clarion University Art Gallery and the Spoken Art Reading Series joint event "Articulating Spaces: Poets and Artists Interacting with their Environment." I saw her read my senior year at the College of Wooster and we presented together at a conference at Penn State DuBois. I wrote her a long letter after the conference telling her how much I loved and was inspired by her work and asking if she had any advice for a young poet. I never heard back... Anyhow, judge for yourself at Clarion's gallery Thursday, Oct. 19 at 5 p.m.

?love will be at Clarion University when it hosts the first ever Hip-Hop Symposium Oct. 18, in the Gemmell Student Complex Multi-Purpose Room.

Fodors.com, a travel Web site, has listed Straub Brewery as one of the five best places in America to drink American beer.

Poets and Writers magazine offers a postcard from San Franciscio's Beat Museum:
The eclectic crowd --my boyfriend Saroyan admitted he was distracted by the rainbow-propeller beanie worn by one attendee -- dove into the crudites and gluten-free cookies on the snack table. I couldn't help but wonder how Kerouac would feel about the eighteen-dollar "Beat berets" for sale, but with regular admission at the low cost of five dollars per person, a museum's got to survive somehow.

Discount book seller daedalus books has four of the Hernandez Brothers' Love and Rockets graphic novels for lesss than $5 each.

Wild dances, banned books, and scar prints

First Night Oil City is looking for volunteers. Although there's no word yet if there any performers needed (the list for this year's announced acts are here - The Klapec Dancers interest me the most - if they dance like their namesake construction/garbage haulers drive, they will perform overly fast with a careless disregard for human life and a complete and utter disdain for their community - and who wouldn't want to see a dance like that?) ...On the other hand, somewhat nearby Salem OH's first night is actively seeking performers:
Each presenter would perform two to three sets, each 30 or 40 minutes long, during the evening. First Night Salem is open to ethnic dance troupes, musical groups, comedians, singers, musical revues and other acts. The presentations can be aimed at youths or adults. To apply, send a CD or DVD to David K. Schwartz, 1888 E. 11th St. Salem, OH, 44460; call (330) 337-6829; or e-mail info@firstnightsalem.com.

The NYTimes profiles Ted Meyer - an artist who makes prints from scars. Not as creepy as you might think.

Another Banned Book Week has ended, and, once again, I didn't do anything cool to celebrate it (like I always promise myself I will - local authors reading portions of their favorite banned books with a band afterwards was the plan this year. Sigh...Gang aft agley, and all that...) I read that the Marshall (MO) Public Library Board of Trustees will hold a public hearing at 7 p.m., Wednesday, Oct. 4, to hear a request to remove material two graphic novels -- Fun Home, by Alison Bechdel and Blankets, by Craig Thompson from the library.