Work got in the way of blogging yesterday which means I must belatedly celebrate the birthdays of some of my favorite artists:Edward Gorey, sexy dead poet Edna St Vincent Millay, and Pittsburgh's own Gerald Stern.

The Library of Congress has made available the The George Grantham Bain Collection
. . . the photographic files of one of America's earliest news picture agencies. The collection richly documents sports events, theater, celebrities, crime, strikes, disasters, political activities including the woman suffrage campaign, conventions and public celebrations. The photographs Bain produced and gathered for distribution through his news service were worldwide in their coverage, but there was a special emphasis on life in New York City. The bulk of the collection dates from the 1900s to the mid-1920s, but scattered images can be found as early as the 1860s and as late as the 1930s.

Available online are 39,744 glass negatives and a selection of about 1,600 photographic prints for which copy negatives exist.

There are tons of early Pittsburgh Pirate photos (remember to search for "Pittsburg" as well), Including this one with Honus Wagner:

This one called "Tusk, held by four men, excavated near Pittsburgh"

or "Miss Pittsburgh in Atlantic City"

and, of course, the "Pittsburgh Arts Committee"
Wing & A Prayer Pittsburgh Players performed at Central Elementary School yesterday
The muticultural troupe of dancers, drummers, singers and storytellers, was in town for a program, "Amandla: A Celebration of the African Arts"

Titusville's Four Sons Brewery sold for, gulp, $323. Please god tell me there was some sort of catch and I didn't miss out on one of those once-in-a-lifetime own a bar for less than an evening's bar tab. The Business Authority say they'll have anew owner within a month. Not to be cynical, but where have I heard that before.

Speaking of the Franklin Club, despite all the rumors that have been flying around, no buyers yet. No surprise there, it's a beautiful property but in need of tens of thousands of dollars (if not more) of repairs.

While the NYTimes hosts a slideshow of celebrity tattoos, local radio station KISS FM is running a tattoo contest. Which would actually be kind of cool until you read the rules and realize it's a random drawing. That means, that like so many local tattoos, quality of art means nothing - a Daniel Johnson tattoo has the same chance as a scorpion eating an eyeball as a tramp stamp. Still, I'll probably rustle something up to send in. venangago-go tatoo anyone?

The Warhol Museum has listed its March programs.

I never actually watched the OC, but was glad to see that Matt Pond PA and Wilco made Rolling Stone's best of the OC's music list.

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...