I'm buried in work, but there's just too much good stuff coming up not to bring it to your attention.

Tomorrow, poet Ilya Kaminsky will be at Clarion University's art gallery at 7 pm. Free and open to the public. Kaminsky was born in Odessa, former Soviet Union in 1977, and arrived to the United States in 1993, when his family was granted asylum by the American government. Kaminsky is the author of Dancing in Odessa He lost most of his hearing at the age of four after a bout with the mumps the Soviet state doctor thought was just a cold, and currently lives on the West Coast (what an awkward alignment of facts on my part). Here's one of his:

"Author's Prayer"

If I speak for the dead, I must
leave this animal of my body,

I must write the same poem over and over
for the empty page is a white flag of their surrender.

If I speak of them, I must walk
on the edge of myself, I must live as a blind man

who runs through the rooms without
touching the furniture.

Yes, I live. I can cross the streets asking "What year
is it?"
I can dance in my sleep and laugh

in front of the mirror.
Even sleep is a prayer, Lord,

I will praise your madness, and
in a language not mine, speak

of music that wakes us, music
in which we move. For whatever I say

is a kind of petition and the darkest days
must I praise.

But, a better idea is to listen to his reading at Bowdoin about a year ago here

On Friday and Saturday, Theatre in the Little Theatre is presenting Joe Orton’s What the Butler Saw at 8 pm on Franklin’s Barrow Civic Little Theatre.

Disguises, mistaken identities, parental disclosures, slapstick, wild movements, absurd situations, horseplay, and the ridiculous are all present in Orton’s laugh out loud play. The cost is $5. There will be a cash bar. What the Butler Saw contains adult themes and may be inappropriate for children under the age of 13.

Finally, On Saturday, Venango Campus' film series continues with Andanggaman

In West Africa during the late 17th century, King Adanggaman leads a war against his neighboring tribes, ordering his soldiers to torch enemy villages, kill the elderly and capture the healthy tribesmen to sell to the European slave traders. When his village falls prey to one of Adanggaman's attacks, Ossei manages to escape, but his family is murdered except for his captured mother. Chasing after the soldiers in an effort to free her, Ossei is befriended by a fierce warrior named Naka.

Meadville's Blue Planet Cafe live music events are planned for the following Saturdays in 2007:
Jan. 27th, Feb. 24th, Mar. 24th, Apr. 21st, May 26th, June 23rd,
July 28th, Aug. 25th, Sep. 22, Oct. 20, Nov. 24th, Dec. 22nd.
Bands looking to play should send an email.

Venangoland has been updated:
It’s common to complain about irresponsible people. But I don’t think irresponsibility is nearly as large an issue as nonresponsibility.

Don't forget that Ballet Russes kicks off The Clarion University-Venango Campus Spring 2007 Independent Film Series tonight at 7:30 pm in Rhoades Auditorium.
Part history, part love letter, Ballets Russes may be the most purely delightful documentary in years. The movie follows the birth of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo in the early 1930s, an event that eventually led--after years of exhilarating experiments, bitter artistic battles, and exhausting tours--to the establishment of modern ballet around the world. Ballet Russes combines astonishing film footage of fantastical ballets (featuring extravagant sets designed by Salvador Dali and costumes by Henri Matisse) and interviews with surviving dancers in their 70s, 80s, and 90s (ranging from Dame Alicia Markova, who was a prima ballerina with the original Ballet Russe under impresario Sergei Diaghilev, to Yvonne Craig, who went on to become Batgirl in the '60s tv show Batman); the result is a breathtaking range of scholarship and depth of feeling.

After the show, why not discuss the variegates of youth in the professional dance world over a beer float. Uh, yum? I...guess...

Me? I'll be celebrating the winter weather by obsessively tracking the delivery dates of the Hammerhead snow sled and threadless' "advisors" shirt.

Gypsy Dave is right! That's the word from Joann Wheeler, who wrote in response to yesterday's post:
. . . May 26 is the date of a community-wide celebration of the arts in Oil City that will center on the unveiling of several pieces of public art by Dave Poulin and the Seventh Street Elementary School kids, a full schedule of performances by singers/songwriters [including Jerome Wincek]. . . Look for more details soon --

If you haven't written Venango County author, professor, and all around good guy Phil Terman yet and asked, politely, to be added to his daily poetry email, do so immediatly. Tell him you saw it on venangago-go

The Eerie Horror Film Festival has added a video game competition The competition is open to an international audience with a special discount for students ages 10 - 17. Deadline for the Video Game Competition is September 1, 2007. The fourth Annual Eerie Horror Film Festival takes place at the Erie Playhouse in Erie, Pennsylvania, October 10 - 14, 2007.

Speaking of such, a Pittsburgh area teacher resigned her position after school officials learned that she and her husband had filmed portions of a horror movie they are producing, The Killer Inside You, at the high school.

The first exhibition of the all-female roller derby Steel City Derby Demons Saturday at Bladerunners in Harmarville is sold out. I'm guessing that means a bigger crowd for the Meadville Area Senior High School which hosts the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association District Orchestra Festival Saturday at 1:30 p.m.

The performance will include the Star-Spangled Banner, a Russian Easter overture, and New World Symphony No. 9. The students will conclude with Pirates of the Caribbean . . . ,” the MASH graphic arts department created posters of pirate hats with the names of every student and the schools they represent.

via Erieblogs:
Erie Insurance Group donated $300,000 in corporate support of the Erie Art Museum's $9 million capital campaign. The planned $9 million capital project includes four major galleries, a number of smaller galleries, and a 250 person performance space

Mercyhurst College, Channel 19, will be one of four area television channels to air "Arts Unwrapped," a half-hour program produced by Community Access Television, on Saturday, Jan 27, at 7:30 pm. Venango residents can pick it up on WJET-TV 24. The program brings together several self-identified "arts amateurs" and exposes them to the wide variety of arts offerings in Erie. I'm nto sure what that means, but it sounds like they're building on that sort-of-annoying show that takes people from one area of the state and sends them on vacation in another. You know, Mercyhurst, Venango County isn't that far away. Let's talk, shall we?

Finally, not local, but still interesting:

Beneath Boston’s well-known literary roots lies a thriving, independent culture of poetry, spoken word and creative writing.

Butte Montana is attempting an arts revitalization project.

Oil City Singer/Songwriter Festival

Gypsy Dave's MySpace page announces:
May, 26 2007 at The Downtown Oil City Singer/songwriter Festival, Oil City, Pennsylvania :
Details TBA, but Jerome Wincek and I are putting together a fantastic festival comprised of all the young singer/songwriters that are making their way in the tri-state area. More info soon!

Sounds like we should all save the date.

More well deserved love for the Oil City Arts Revitalization effort.

Venango Campus has listed their cultural events for the Spring including their stellar film series.

The Rick Dan Band and others show up at the Meadville Council on the Arts this weekend.

A Bradford family showed up on NPR earlier this week.

NPR is also holding an Oscar speech contest.

Even writers (or is it especially writers) have urban myths:
We have read your manuscript with boundless delight. If we were to publish your paper, it would be impossible for us to publish any work of lower standard. And as it is unthinkable that in the next thousand years we shall see its equal, we are, to our regret, compelled to return your divine composition, and to beg you a thousand times to overlook our short sight and timidity.

Excuse my drool at the prospect of this huge used book sale.

Arts Champ Joann Wheeler wrote to tell us the good news that:
. . . "we had 20 people show up for Holly's info session yesterday. And last week over 40 quilters!"
Wonderful!

I'm still stunned that no regional paper carried an article about Eggers' visit to Meadville. Did anyone make it up?

Speaking of Meadville, a 7- by 10-foot art deco-style mural was recently put on display at the former bank building at 940 Park Ave now known as "@theBank", and annoying little mid 90s name if there ever was one.

Newbery and Caldecott medals were awarded in Seattle

The Finalists for the Edgar Award have been announced. When Contemporary forwarded my bookfor consideration, I took a look at the first novel contenders and picked who I thought would win : The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril. My wife chose The Mephisto Club. Neither of them made the final four, so I guess I'm in good company. Now I have to go lay under a blanket and quietly sob.

This week The Pittsburgh City Paper highlights Pittsburgh's museums. Included are family favorites like the zoo, perennial hipster faves like St Anthony's (technically not a museum...) and few I didn't even know existed like Bayernhof Museum

This Tuesday the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council's Business Skills hosts "How to Be an Artist" which
covers job opportunities; funding opportunities; finding facilities conducive to creativity; documenting and preparing work; and networking among artists.
Two sessions: 9:30-11 a.m. (Pittsburgh Public Theatre, 621 Penn Ave., Downtown) and 4-6 p.m. (Pittsburgh Filmmakers, 477 Melwood Ave., N. Oakland). $18. (412) 394-3353.

The Friends of Bailey Library are sponsoring a used book and media sale next week, Monday, January 22, to Friday, January 26 at Slippery Rock University.

The Meadville Tribune profiles the Winter Blues Bluegrass Festival.

The Autumn Leaf Festival's logo design contest has started.

Persepolis has been made into a movie.

Benefit Show - I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change

One of the great things about living in Venango is that everything is darn cheap. Last week I was invited to Pittsburgh's Bricolage, an event where 6 writers have 12 hours to write a 10-minute play inspired by a 90-minute journey on a city bus. The directors and actors have the next 12 hours to rehearse, memorize and stage each play to debut that same evening exactly 24 hours after the first meeting. It was a benefit for a theatre company and tickets cost $75. Ouch.
However, this Saturday the 20th, at 8:00, the Barrow will host a re-presentation of the production of I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change .
As Director Peter Greene writes in Venangoland:

The show is a series of short vignettes capturing every aspect of meeting and mating from the very first moments of nervous first datery all the way through marriage, kids and, um, maturity. It is a musical about humor and love in everyday, ordinary life. The tunes are fun and, the characters are many of the people that we all know. The show does deal with mature themes and situations, but in a grown-up manner.The cast is composed of local theater veterans Steve Luxbacher, Jodi Hoover, Steve Teig and Suzi Ditzenberger, The musical accompaniment is provided by Kristen Criado and Jill Mattson.

It too is a benefit show, helping to the theater defray the cost of some new sound equipment. Prior to the production there will be a silent auction.

For $15. I'm serious. Only in Western PA. Call 437-3440 or 800-537-7769.

Speaking of Jill, this Saturday, January 20, at 1:00 pm Holly Nowak of the Arts Council of Erie and Oil City artist Jill Mattson will meet with artists in the Great Room of the National Transit Building to explain how to respond to the Arts in Education call for professional artists and become eligible for state-funded residencies and projects in schools and community organizations. Individual artists, companies, and ensembles may apply. The deadline is March 15. Call (814)676-5303 to reseve a spot.

Sylvia Coast and Kaycee Reib are looking for input on a book on Venango County's black history. Considering that everyone I talk to who owns an old house claims that it was a stop on the Underground Railroad, it's going to be a pretty big book.

The Titusville Redevelopment Authority is looking for a buyer for the Four Sons Brewery.

The RickDan Band is sponsering a big ol' music festival Saturday. 11 bands for $8 bucks at the Franklin Presbyterian Church 1250 Elk Street, Franklin, Pennsylvania 16323. Playing will be Signal Home, Loko Phylum, Hand in Hand, Nothing Unexpected, Hope on a Rope, and many others.

Although I think that the PA Lottery groundhog is one of the creepiest animatronics since 1950s Disney, Phil himself still has street cred (meadow cred?). Check out Groundhog Crossing for this year's build up.

Eggers in Meadville

Really big news from Justin:

Big time author Dave Eggers will be in Meadville, tonight at the Tattered Corners Used Books (247 Chestnut St.) at 7:00 p.m. promoting Egger's book what is the what.
Valentino Achak Deng, real-life hero of this engrossing epic, was a refugee from the Sudanese civil war-the bloodbath before the current Darfur bloodbath-of the 1980s and 90s. In this fictionalized memoir, Eggers makes him an icon of globalization. Separated from his family when Arab militia destroy his village, Valentino joins thousands of other "Lost Boys," beset by starvation, thirst and man-eating lions on their march to squalid refugee camps in Ethiopia and Kenya, where Valentino pieces together a new life. He eventually reaches America, but finds his quest for safety, community and fulfillment in many ways even more difficult there than in the camps: he recalls, for instance, being robbed, beaten and held captive in his Atlanta apartment. Eggers's limpid prose gives Valentino an unaffected, compelling voice and makes his narrative by turns harrowing, funny, bleak and lyrical. The result is a horrific account of the Sudanese tragedy, but also an emblematic saga of modernity-of the search for home and self in a world of unending upheaval.

How did Eggers wind up Meadville? Deng now attends Allegheny.

Hands of Steel (No, not the crazed cyborg movie) a film about Youngstown Steel Workers is looking for extras at Y-town's Our Lady of the Afflicted Shrine Social Hall on Januray 17th at 7 p.m. Call 330-506-3907 for more info.

The Sobol Award Which had been a chance for agentless writers to win money and a Simon and Scuster contracted, has been cancelled.

The Costa Book Award (which I still call the Whitbread, its old name. Not because it's cool to do so, but because I can't remember anything.) has been announced:
William Boyd's Restless
Stef Penney's The Tenderness of Wolves
Brian Thompson's Keeping Mum

This weekend is Allegheny's "8 Hour Drawing" invitational show. Saturday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Free and open to the public.

Perfect spring semester T shirt? f(X) =sheep(x)m

Now's your chance to vote for Venango County as one of the best small town arts destination. Vote early, vote often, and tell all your friends.

If ever there was an art movement that begged to be replicated in Venango, it's got to be The Crucible.

The Crucible is an arts education center that fosters the collaboration of art, industry and community. Through training in the fine and industrial arts, The Crucible promotes creative expression, reuse of materials and innovative design while serving as an accessible arts venue for the public.

Michael Harper's poem about segregation in baseball, "BLACKJACK" is the inspiration for composer Richard Danielpour's new work, "Pastime," which will premier at the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra Saturday.

Public Transit in Western PA? It's true. There's now a free bus running from Meadville to Edinboro University.

The Observer covers a reissue of one of my favorite graphic novels, Chicken With Plums. There's been a lot of Persepolis talk on this blog, and if you liked that, this is another good bet.

Looks like my old neighborhood will soon be part of Harvard.

Paul Simon needs to intervene on this right now. Surely he has some sort of work Art could do....

Erie Museum Review, Gypsy Dave, and more

School is ramping up again which means fewer updates and, if you've sent me an email in the past five days, I swear to God, I'll answer them by tomorrow. Sorry for the delay.

You may (or may not) have noticed that I haven't linked to the Erie Times News for close to 6 months. I decided to stop because the site was just so bad - awkward to use with an intrusive registration system. Now (perhaps prodded by the fact that erieblogs gets more visitors than the Erie Times News) they've redesigned the site and will go live on Monday. Let's wait and see, shall we...

Speaking of Erie, Rocket 101 is doing one of them there Battle of the Bands things. If you can still take the concept seriously after School of Rock, sign up and God Bless.

Gypsy Dave will be playing tomorrow night at Seneca's Brother Bean Coffeehouse at 7 pm - no cover.

My book, Jack Kerouac: A Biography is now available in (a much cheaper) digital form.

Peter Greene has redesigned Venangoland.

This weekend is the first annual Pittsburgh Hip-Hop Awards. The event will take place Sunday at the Pittsburgh Hilton and will be hosted by hip-hop pioneer Grandmaster Mele Mel.

Speaking of songs of violence, sex and death, the 10th annual bluegrass January Ice Jam is this weekend at the Days Inn, Route 8, in Butler.
Admission is free, but donations are accepted to benefit the Bluegrass Relief Fund and WYEP radio in support of bluegrass.

The East Bay Express profiles Girl Talk's upcomng appearance there:

Pittsburgh producer Girl Talk hopes he can play for longer than ten minutes this week in San Francisco. The last Bay Area party he hosted at the Be the RIOTTT! culture expo got so wild, its organizers freaked out when he started a real ruckus.

Pittsburgh's Cinemark Theaters is one of the markets being served by the Metropolitan Opera's high-definition broadcasts. NPR covered the story here

Touchstone, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, has promised to publish a book by a first-time author who wins a contest on Gather.com. The contest, called First Chapters, will be officially announced today.

Unpublished writers can enter free by submitting a manuscript for a full-length work of fiction. Each entry’s first chapter will be posted on Gather.com and voted on by members of the site. In the next round, the second chapters of the top 20 manuscripts will be posted, followed by a vote; a subsequent round will post the third chapters of the top 10, followed by a vote. In the fourth and final round, the entire manuscripts of five finalists will go before a “Grand Prize Judging Panel,” to include Carolyn K. Reidy, the president of the adult publishing group at Simon & Schuster, and George Jones, the chief executive of Borders. The winner will receive a book contract from Touchstone and $5,000 from Gather.com.

Pithole: The Vanished City, written by William C. Darrah in 1972, has been re-issued by the Oil Region Alliance of Business, Industry and Tourism. No, you can't buy it on amazon or bn. Sigh.

The Meadville Council on the Arts is presenting the exhibit "Richard 'JD' Hopkins Presents" at its Heeschen Gallery on the second floor of the Market House in downtown Meadville. The Guys Mills artist is also a musician (he fronts J.D. and the Sons of Rhythm) and author (his 1994 novel of prison life, Queens of Iron was based on the six years he spent in prison).

Erie native and Arthur creator Mark Brown is auctioning off his collection of Americana at Sotheby's next week.

The Trumbell Art Gallery in Warren, Ohio is featuring Howard L. Worner's Paintings of Steel Mills Around the World from January 7 - 27, 2007.

The Erie Art Museum’s 1st floor gallery show, "Artists Of The Commonwealth: Realism And Its Response In Pennsylvania Painting, 1900 – 1950", tracks the development of Pennsylvanian artist through the first half of the 20th century. It’s actually the second in a series of exhibitions highlighting significant Pennsylvania painters, organized by the Westmoreland Museum of American Art in collaboration with the Erie Art Museum and the Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art, and supported by a grant from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Picture Pennsylvania program. It’s not a must see for most us, although if you’re already in town, you should stop by (especially on Wednesday’s when admission is free), but if you’re an art nerd (like me) or have youngsters you want to ease into the art experience, you shouldn’t miss this show.

The exhibition includes the work of 38 artists, native to and/or painting in Pennsylvania during the first half of the 20th century.

Clarence Carter (1904-2000)

Study for the Barnesville Post Office Mural, 1935

There are a lot of well known artists here – while the names are ones the casual museum goer may recognize the art is not the usual choices from their oeuvre. There’s N.C. Wyeth’s illustration for the cover of Jules Verne's "The Mysterious Island". Pittsburgh artist George Ericson, using the pseudonym Eugene Iverd, who gained fame as an illustrator for such publications as the Saturday Evening Post is represented by "Young Scientist": And, the whole reason we went, my wife’s favorite artist Pittsburgh native Mary Cassatt and her family portrait "Mother and Two Children".

The Cassatt painting is clearly the highlight of the show (and at least at the Erie show is highlighted by its arrangement so that it's first seen from through the gallery entryway). The painting shows the touches that make it a classic example of her work, the deeply incised lines as well as the general tapering off of detail until the bottom of the painting as well as the hands and feet of he subject look almost incomplete.

What’s great about the show though isn’t the Cassatt (or the Parrish, or the Wyeth) none of the pieces are really that emblematic or even standout representations of their artists- rather it’s the fact that it’s the perfect show for families. Its scope is small enough and simple enough for families with younger children to begin to be introduced to museums (I’m speaking here, I should make clear, of the work in the main gallery. The auxiliary galleries held the show’s landscapes, which, frankly, didn’t hold a lot of interest for me. And the less said about the glass show in the basement galleries which resemble the finished basements in which I practiced my smooth moves on young ladies 15 years ago, the better.)

There is one final complaint though. When I went to the gift shop the door was half shut and the lights turned off although it was clearly supposed to be open. When I finally went into the closet sized room, it was slim pickings—no postcards or t-shirts from the current show -- only the relatively expensive catalog. In the age of small print runs and cafepress and during a time when The Erie Art Museum is looking for dining, would it be so difficult to offer up a few tchotchkes for rubes like me to buy?

The region's foremost nature photographer, John M Karian, took time to answer my search for Jerry Sowden prints:

I've purchased prints at the Transit Fine Art gallery. His work is now available at Victorian City Art and Frame

Thanks John. And thanks for dropping by!
Victorian City Art & Frame can be found at
1273 Liberty Street
Franklin, PA 16323
(814) 437-9509
(800) 909-1444
viccity@csonline.net

While you're there, pick up some of John's work as well!

I've updated the Venango County Author's Bibliography to include my new book, Masterpieces of Beat Literature ; Jill Mattson's book, Transformative Power in Sound, Intelligence, Health and Energy through the Magic of Music; John M Karian's Allegheny Waterway and Wetland Splendors and Allegheny Wetland Splendors: Up Close; and Jamie Denton's new romance, The Matchmaker. I also cleaned up a few MLA errors. Download it from the link on the left, take a look at it, tell me what I'm missing or have done wrong, and make sure you circulate it. If you're using it for educational purposes (schools and libraries for example) and need the list in bulk, drop me a line and we can work something out to get you as many copies as you need for the price of postage.

Speaking of Rouseville's romance writer Jamie Denton (who has an appearance schedule that I envy and, from her photo on her webpage, looks incredibly good for a six time over grandma. Apparently love (or at least writing about love) really does keep one young:

For a free autographed bookplate, cover flats, magnet, bookmarks and other fun goodies,send a self addressed stamped 9x12 envelope with $.87 postage to the postal address below.Or you can send a regular business size self-addressed stamped envelope with $.39 postage for autographed bookplate, magnet, and bookmarks.
Jamie Denton
PO Box 39
Rouseville, PA 16344

Do me a favor and tell her you saw it on venangago-go.blogspot.com

It's embarrassing to admit that I hadn't realized that Titusville's Four Sons Brewery had closed.

The Franklin Club is looking for a buyer. Which is kind of strange, because if the Celtic can't find a buyer for 400K (or 525K, depending to whom you're talking), what chance does a building that has a long list of maintenance issues (does that split pillar on the upper deck frighten anyone else...) have unless it's at a bargain basement price -- and that would really be a shame.

Venangoland tackles the Franklin Club issue as well...

Clicking around last night I ran into the Allegheny Musarium site. Although it's a well thought out proposal, my first thought was to be cynical. But then I realized that two years ago, I would have laughed heartily about the idea of a hunting and fishing museum becoming a reality...

Jerry Sowden's image in this morning's News Herald cements my belief that he's one of the most underappreciated working artists in the area. Why can't I find any of his work in a local gallery?

My contribution appeared in the fine regional blog, Overheard in Pittsburgh, on the day after Christmas (caution - cursing ahead)

Looking ahead, Yankee Zydeco Company announced that they will be playing a free show from 7:30-9 p.m. as part of Oil City's Arts in the Park, Friday, August 10, 2007.

As part of Oil City's arts revitalization effort, a quilting guild is being established in Oil City.
It's for all quilters, beginners and professionals, hand-quilters and machine-quilters, traditional quilters and art quilters.
The NQA has certification programs for quilt teachers and judges, a Master's Guild to recognize outstanding quilting achievement, and a Grant and Scholarship program to give monetary assistance to individuals or groups studying or researching the field of quiltmaking.
An organizational meeting to determine the best meeting times and dates will be held at Oil City's National Transit Building on Saturday, January 13, 2007, from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. Please contact either Ms. Roby-Lavery at 814-677-3795 or Ms. Joann Wheeler at 814-676-5303 for more info.

The Arts Council of Erie's Art in Education Partnership is seeking professional artists in all disciplines to apply for inclusion in the 2007 Pennsylvania Directory of Artists. Artists accepted into this program are eligible to participate in residencies at schools and community service organizations funded partly by the AIE partnership.Individaul artists, ensembles, and companies may apply. Application deadline is March 15, 2007.
For more information and/or an application, contact: Michelle Martin at the Arts Council of Erie by calling 814-452-3427 or by emailing .Holly Nowak from the Arts Council of Erie will be in Oil City on Saturday, January 20, 2007 to explain the program in detail to interested area artists at 1:00 pm in the Great Room of the National Transit Building, 206 Seneca Street, Oil City. Local artist and composer Jill Mattson will co-present. For more information or to register for the free presentation, call Joann Wheeler at 814-676-5303

The Erie Playhouse has announced they'll be presenting one of my favorite shows, The Piano Lesson, on February 2 & 3, 8-11, 14-18. But, they also announced that due to contractual difficulties The Erie Playhouse is replacing Copenhagen with I Left My Heart: A Salute to the Music of Tony Bennett. Bleh.

Bill Miller's show "Vintage Linoleum Works" opens this weekend at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts.

Miller, who once scavenged through old mill sites as a founding member of the Pittsburgh Industrial Arts Co-op is a connoisseur of old linoleum, which he varnishes and then fills with images ranging from landscapes to portraits to political assassinations.

The opening is from 5:30 to 8 p.m. A $5 donation is suggested for nonmembers.