Thursday, April 26, 2007

Thanks to fourth grader Casey Hall 450 people showed up to see RL Stine at SRU. To put it into perspective, yesterday, 250 people showed up at Sen McCain's rally to announce his presidential candacy. Now, can we get the kid to come back to the area when she grows up and book shows?

Looks like a roadtrip kind of weekend. First and most important is Friday's Jerome Wincek show at Erie's Avalon Hotel (16 w. 10th st., Erie, Pennsylvania). The hardest working man in show business is playing from 9-1 .

The Meadville Market House is hosting Emil & the Palookas on Friday, April 27th 8:00PM - 11:00PM, $4.00 cover (or "donation"as they put it, which I guess means I can write it off.) On Saturday in the Market House, it's the Blue Planet Cafe with Gaffer, Sally Wilcox, and Title Me Wrong playing from 7:00PM to 10:00PM. Another $4.00.


While I'm a die-hard Seawolves fan (all right, I really just like drinking Railbender Ale in the stands on sunny days.) it was great to hear that SRU will host two professional sports teams this summer. The New Castle Thunder of the North American Football League, a minor league football organization, will play its home games at Bob DiSpirito Field at N. Kerr Thompson Stadium. The Thunder will hold practice sessions at Thompson Stadium, and out of its 10-game schedule will play five regular-season home games. Home games are scheduled for June 16 and 30, July 14 and 28, and Aug. 4.

Earlier, I wrote about the Slippery Rock Sliders, one of the newest teams in the independent Frontier Baseball League, calling SRU home for the upcoming season. The Sliders' home opener is set for May 29.

I'm kind of surprised that a place like Oil City hasn't tried to score a farm team.


The line up for the Firefly Music Festival has been announced.
The Jul 27, 2007 festival on The Arthur Farm (28555 White hill RD. Cambridge Spring, PA 16403) features:
The Recipe, Big Leg Emma, Grassfire, The Yankee Zydeco Company, Sage, Gypsy Dave and the Stump Jumpers, Jay Hitt, Salmon Frank, The Sofa King Cool Band, Milo Page, Jim Froman's Hot Rhythm Club Band, The Great American Gypsies, Peppertown, Gaffer, Little Country Giants, Claire Stuczynski and Dan Wilcox.
That's a whole lot of hippie love, people. More acts will be announced.


Seneca's Brother Bean has announced their upcoming Saturday acoustic shows. Shows start at 7 pm and are cover free:

4-28-07 Jesse Lavery
5-5-07 Psalters
5-12-07 Big Tone
5-19-07 Bruce and Sean
5-26-07 Donna Donahue
6-2-07 Newman
6-9-07 Jime Teifer
6-16-07 Jon Felton and his Soulmobile
6-23-07 Bruce Squared
6-30-07 Ryan Waterman
7-7-07 Dennis McCurdy and the Lonesome No More Band.


The Monongahela Review is seeking submissions of poetry, prose (fiction or nonfiction), and photography/art. It's a .pdf publication which I think is a stunningly good idea for a small press lit mag.

I wish I was headed to the 2007 Symposium on Lensless, Alternative and Adaptive Photographic Processes a four-day, Pittsburgh wide series of talks, workshops and exhibits on lensless, historic and adaptive DIY photography conference. It started today and is sponsored by f295.


The six-day Russian Film Symposium, co-presented by the University of Pittsburgh and Pittsburgh Filmmakers, begins Mon., April 30, and offers a dozen films, to be shown on the Oakland campus and at the Melwood Screening Room, in North Oakland.


The Three Rivers Arts Festival, taking place June 1-17, recently announced its music schedule. --Cowboy Junkies, Robert Randolph and Los Lonely Boys.

The local main-stage night will feature local psychedelic heroes Black Moth Super Rainbow and indie rockers Race the Ghost on June 4.

The Market Square stage, meanwhile, hosts the Circuits of Steel experimental/electronic showcase June 8, featuring Grand Buffet, Rein[Forced], Discuss and Xanopticon. Arts collective Unicorn Mountain's Storybook Wonderland is there on June 9, and new TRAF partner FLUX, the multi-disciplinary arts party that recently re-debuted in Braddock, will be held on June 16.


My daughter and I were torn about going to the Pittsburgh Comicon. In the end, we decided that we would be more annoyed than amused and nixed it. But if your tolerance is higher than ours, head to the ExpoMart, Monroeville.When: 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Friday; 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday; 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

glad see jerome branching out and playing around. sad to see that the website for the avalon hotel has a magician on the front page.

Dittman said...

OMG, I hadn't seen the site yet. Wow. You know, when I was a boy the Avalon was really nice. I feel very old.