Gagasaurus Rex Welcomes Lady Gaga to Pittsburgh!

OMG somebody call the papa-paparazzi! Put on your p-p-poker faces! Gagasaurus Rex is in Pittsburgh! Rah-rah-ah-ah-ah-ah! No, that’s not a m-m-m-monster! It’s just our friend Creation Rex having some cosplay fun again.

Lady Gaga is bringing her Monster Ball Tour to Pittsburgh on September 5th, and the students at the Art Institute are ready! But you’ve been warned, Lady Gaga, because Gaga-saurus Rex is about to steal all your thunder – walk, walk fashion baby!

Shout out to @DinosaurJosh for the tip:

GaGasaurus created by Milli, Allison and DinoJosh. The Art Institute of Pitt welcomes @ladygaga to Pittsburgh!

Gagasauraus Rex welcomes Lady Gaga to The Art Institute of Pittsburgh!

GaGasaurus was created by Milli, Allison and DinoJosh.

Gagasaurus Rex was discovered in New York City on March 28th, 1986. She is the only known specimen in existence. Gagasaurus was a strong predator, using haute couture to catch its prey.

When is Lady Gaga coming to Pittsburgh?
September 5th, 2010 @ 8:00pm

Where?
Consol Energy Center, duh.

How much are the tickets?
$49.50 / $85 / $175
(and floor tickets are $85)

We’re still trying to figure out if
Gagasaurus Rex is a guy or a girl. jk.

Hey, Hollywood of the East celebrity stalkers… Love and Other Drugs finally has a trailer!

Check out the coffee shop 48 seconds into the trailer. That’s Buena Vista Coffee! Located at 1501 Buena Vista Street in the North Side. Unlike The Next Three Days trailer which was also recently released, there aren’t many Pittsburgh scenes in this clip – the city skyline (0:27 seconds) isn’t even the Burgh. There weren’t any shots of Jake’s Steelers tattoo in all the shirtless scenes, but we’re sure he has the team in his heart. And how about that Anne Hathaway smile! Some of the whitest teeth you’ll ever see.

The movie will open on November 24th. That means there are two locally filmed movies coming out in the same week – The Next Three Days premieres on November 19th.

Part 2:

Steel City Rockers vs. Mods Saturday August 21st at South Side Works!

This Saturday, from 11am-7pm, motorcycle and scooter enthusiasts from all over will gather in South Side Works for Pittsburgh’s first vintage motorcycle and scooter rally! The Vintage Grand Prix is a classic Burgh event, but it’s always during a time when people choose to go on vacation! If you missed the cars back in July, or if you just prefer two wheels to four, then you don’t want to miss Steel City Rockers vs. Mods!

You may have noticed more and more café racers and vintage scooters around the city. Thanks to internationally connected groups like the Steel City Rockers, rocker culture is alive in Pittsburgh. There’s nothing boring about rock-n-roll, loud engines, counterculture, and people dressed up in gear from 1960′s! Plus, the all-day event is in South Side Works so you can find tons of parking (out of the hot sun and in the garages for $1/hr on weekends) and go grab a beer and a bite to eat on nearly every corner.. and even check out a movie since most of the showtimes are between 7 and 8.

Get out the gear, polish up the Nortons, Triumphs, and BMWs or Vespas, Lambrettas, and Allstates (depending on your allegiance) and commemorate this unique period in Motorcycle history with the First Annual Steel City Rockers vs. Mods!

Gangs of mods and rockers fighting in 1964 sparked a moral panic about British youths, and the two groups were seen as folk devils. The rockers adopted a macho biker gang image, wearing clothes such as black leather jackets. The mods adopted a pose of scooter-driving sophistication, wearing suits and other clean-cut outfits. By late 1966, the two subcultures had faded until a revival in the mid 80’s.

Join us for a one-of-a-kind rally featuring bands, DJs, a pin-up-girl contest, raffles, vendors, and of course, lots of bikes! Special guest judges will be on-site to distribute awards to both motorcycles and scooters. Come on out and help us make this event one to remember!

When is it?
Saturday, August 21st
11:00am – 7:00pm

Where is it?
Southside Works Parking Lot (map)
S. 26th Street & Sidney Street
Pittsburgh, PA 15203

Who’s playing live music?
Click here for a list

Are there going to be vendors?
Yes! Click here for the list

So are you a Rocker or a Mod??

The 2010 Bacon Bash with Mr. Baconpants - "Collateral Damage"

Saturday afternoon was the fourth annual Pittsburgh Bacon Bash, at the Harris Grill in Shadyside, the brainchild of Event organizer Jason Mosley (a.k.a: Mr. Baconpants), a man whose life ambition seems to be to do for bacon in Pittsburgh what Johnny Appleseed once did for apples in the American colonies..

Canton, Ohio-based Sugardale Foods, purveyor of the vast quantities of bacon consumed on the glorious day, was a sponsor of the event. There were three noble souls from Sugardale standing in front of the entrance to the Harris Grill, denying themselves even the shade of the table umbrellas to give out samples of some nice bacon dip and other delights. I would be remiss in not mentioning their upcoming bacon recipe contest—not a “bake-off” but a “bac-ON.” Here is the link—why not, with $3, 000 riding on it?

The Sugardale Foods posse

Before I go any further, I should also mention Three Rivers Underground Brewers, who had a lovely selection of microbrews there for the sampling. I tried the “Maple ESB,” mainly because I had never assembled the concept of maple-flavored beer in my mind before. It tasted like fizzy maple syrup, but I can at least say I tried it. The guy I talked to from there said he thought that the maple flavor might go well with the bacon. Fair enough, but if I’m eating something salty, give me something nice and hoppy—so he did. They host a Cystic Fibrosis benefit every year—this year’s will be in October.

Three Rivers Underground Brewers

I heard that I missed out on some good food from when the fest first got rolling. (Hey, I got there as soon as I could!) Out of what I did sample, there were some interesting chicken wings, fried in bacon salt, which made them extra-salty in the way that other wings can be painfully spicy, but I found that they were a taste that I was able to acquire, even though they required more than the usual amount of alcoholic lubrication.

Too much else, however, seemed to lack imagination. There was some bacon-wrapped tofu, for example. Having spent a few years living on tofu when I was low on capital, I know how not to prepare and serve it. You have to cut it up really small, so it absorbs whatever seasoning you’re working with; either that, or you just mash it in like potatoes in corned beef hash—otherwise, you’re just tasting big blobs of nothing. The bacon wraps were like that—big, tasteless blocks of cold tofu with one strip of bacon wrapped around them, bacon which, by the way, is necessarily too soft to be nice and crunchy.

There was some garlic bread which much in the same vein—nice little restaurant-size garlic bread loaves, probably made from scratch, with—you guessed it—strips of bacon wrapped around them. The bread was good—especially after the bacon fell off of it.

I had several pieces of the bacon sushi, partially because I can always have several pieces of sushi; however, in this instance, I had a bit of a so-what feeling. They were basically California rolls, with rice and seaweed, then bacon in the place of the seafood. They tasted like seaweed, rice, and bacon. While I wouldn’t say no to the bacon sushi were I to see it again, I doubt the sushi joint up the street is at battle stations over it, either.

BLT’s, of course, which were just fine with me—I had several of those miniature confections. Also pretzels with tasty bacon-based spread, perhaps courtesy of Sugardale again.

I had never in my life heard of bacon-flavored vodka before, but there is such a confection. According to none other than the more-or-less reliable Wikipedia:

Bacon vodka, created based on the concept of a “meat and potatoes” pairing, is one result of bacon mania, an American fanaticism with bacon in general. It can be made by soaking bacon in a bottle of vodka for roughly two weeks and then straining out the bacon. In April 2009, Seattle-based Black Rock Spirits released a commercial version of bacon-infused vodka, which is known as “Bakon Vodka,” a result of two years of vodka research. Black Rock’s vodka is a potato-based spirit, created using a single heating process of column distillation in an effort to keep the alcohol from “bruising.’ Bakon Vodka is currently available only in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Iowa, Montana and New York. Although initially a limited production, Black Rock Spirits will expand availability based on demand.

I guess if you’re going to make bacon vodka, you may as well go all out.

The thought didn’t cross my mind to try a Bakon Mary (a Bloody Mary with you-know-what)—I wonder if I’ll ever get another chance. There was a raffle, during which various prizes were dispensed, the grand prize being, of course, a bottle of Bakon vodka.

Bakon Vodka winner at the Mr. BaconPants Bacon Bash

On to the main event—the bacon-eating contest! I thought of scenes from two movies: Cool Hand Luke and Stand by Me. I think this contest had more in common with Cool Hand Luke, in that dehydration can be a key factor the way it is when choking down hard-boiled eggs, much like the Saltine-cracker-eating contests from my fraternity-pledge days. The competition was fierce, nearly to the death. One participant proudly, brazenly wore a Star of David, which seemed to glow like Hester Prynne’s Scarlet Letter as he enveloped himself in porcine decadence. Of note also is the contest’s one dark horse (see photo) who didn’t look like she was old enough to go into the bar, but gave the winner, known to the throng as “AJ,” quite the battle. (I again thought of the kid in the blueberry-pie-eating contest in Stand by Me, but only briefly.)

Time for dessert. There were maple-frosted cupcakes with a chunk of bacon dropped on top, like a paint bomb thrown from a speeding low rider, and the piece de resistance (or perhaps the coup de grace), chocolate-covered bacon. They could have made it nice and crunchy for once—it could have succeeded, like some twisted fun-house mirror reflection of a Kit Kat—but, instead, they used the same floppy and droopy stuff that may have been left over from the tofu. My wife and I weren’t able to finish ours, and the couple with whom we were sharing a table passed on seconds. More than anything else, it reminded me of high school biology class, slicing through the worm’s epidermis to expose the gooshy stuff contained within.

A good time in the long run, however. Next year, I’ll try to get there early. Maybe someone in the Harris Grill kitchen has heard of fettuccine carbonera?

All Fun-n-Games for serious bacon lovers

Mr. Bacon Pants himself, Jason Mosley

Chicken and bacon

Bacon wrapped garlic bread

Tofu wrapped with bacon

Bacon sushi

Bacon sandwiches

Pretzels and bacon dip

Bacon cupcake

Chocolate dipped bacon

Outdoor crown at the 2010 Bacon Bash at Harris Grill

Getting ready for the bacon eating contest

Getting ready for the bacon eating contest

Getting ready for the bacon eating contest

Stuffing their faces with bacon

Crisis of faith

The dark horse of the bacon eating contest

"AJ" stuffing his face with bacon

"AJ" stuffing his face with bacon

The "Stand By Me" moment

Another "Stand By Me" moment

AJ - The proud winner of the contest. This dude has bacon earrings!

“Let’s see… Farmer Billy’s smoke-fed bacon, Farmer Billy’s bacon-fed bacon, Farmer Billy’s travel bacon… Mr. Simpson, if you really want to kill yourself, I also sell handguns!”
-Apu Nahasapeemapetilon, The Simpsons

"Energy" the new home of the Pittsburgh Penguins

As sad as we are about the Igloo no longer serving as the home of the Pittsburgh Penguins… and as upsetting as it is that there are a handful of suits in the city who are trying their darnedest to organize the demise of the historical steel arena… it’s still hard not to appreciate some of the attributes of the new Consol Energy Center.

But one of those attributes that is definitely not to be appreciated is the main sign. It’s on the verge of being idiotic. For $321,000,000 they could have afforded a better design for the sign. Who’s bright idea was it to put black letters on a dark surface? This seems like something that should have been double checked. Now, when visitors get off the parkway (or come from downtown) they are welcomed by “Energy” …the brand new home of the Pens.

The Boring

A lot of Pittsburghers remember the good ol’ days when things were simple. Our hockey stadium was called the “Civic Arena”, the baseball/football field was the Three Rivers Stadium. Now, companies shove their corporate identities down our throats like geese being prepped for foie gras. It’s obnoxious, annoying, and downright boring.

Is it really worth their while? Does it make you want to rush to First Niagara bank to open a checking account after seeing a John Mayer concert?

If you think naming buildings is boring, get ready for a new wave of corporate branding. They now buy the rights to name doorways, staircases, and concession stands. The main gate at the Consol Energy Center is called the American Eagle Gate. They even call the student rush program, the American Eagle Student Rush. American Eagle Outfitters is a Pittsburgh based company that was founded in 1977. Their corporate headquarters is located in Southside Works, but their clothes are made in places like Vietnam. How perfect would that be if they opened up a factory in Braddock… since Levi’s isn’t.

• American Eagle Gate
• Verizon Gate
• Trib Total Media Gate
• Aramark concession stands
• Highmark Kid Zones
• Corporate branding of the bathrooms still available

A Pittsburgh Threesome?

Who knew that the construction of a new arena was contingent upon bringing gambling to Pittsburgh? Surprisingly, a lot of Pens fans still don’t know that Mario Lemieux and crew were working diligently to get a new arena for the team and after being extended an offer (they couldn’t refuse) by a casino company, Lemieux, Ravenstahl, and Rendell teamed up and struck a deal.

The Lemieux Group explored options to build a replacement for Mellon Arena, the oldest arena in the NHL, since its purchase of the Penguins in 1999.^[5] In an attempt not to use public funding, the Penguins filed for a slots license under the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board. The Penguins were granted the license, though the decision of which casino company would receive approval was the Gaming Control Board’s decision.^[6] The Lemieux Group reached an agreement with Isle of Capri Casinos, which offered to fully fund a US$290 million arena, if Capri could also construct a $500 million casino nearby.^[6] Other casinos, including Majestic Star Casino and Forest City Enterprises, also agreed to partially contribute to the arena’s funding.^[7] On December 20, 2006, the Gaming Control Board awarded the license to Majestic Star Casino, who agreed to pay $7.5 million for the first 30 years,^[8] in addition to the Penguins paying $4 million per year.^[9][10] The casino experienced financial difficulty, which could have led to taxpayers financing the entire project. However, on August 14, 2008 the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board selected Neil Bluhm to take ownership of the casinos, which pulled the casinos out of risk of bankruptcy.^{[11] -from Wikipedia here}

When that much money is being passed around, it’s hard to believe that the parties involved don’t get uber wealthy from the deal-sealing handshake.

Some quick facts:

• Ground was broken for the construction of the Consol Energy Center August 14th, 2008, almost exactly 2 years to build. The Civic Arena took about 4 years.
• The Civic Arena cost $22 million to build in 1961. The Consol Energy Center cost $321 million in 2010.
• The Civic Arena holds a hockey audience of 17,132. The Consol Energy Center, 18,087.
• The Energy Center opens on Augusts 19th, 2010 with  a concert by Paul McCartney at 7:30pm
• The University of Pittsburgh men’s basketball team will play Tennessee at the Consol Energy Center on December 11, 2010.

The Good

The new hockey rink comes with a much needed front lobby equipped with some awesome high-tech goodies. When you walk in the door to the left you will find a wall of touch screens with look into the Hall of Famers of Penguins’ past.  PensGear, A huge Penguins team store is directly ahead. The ticket counter towards the right. And if you keep going right, you will find a steep stairwell down to a lower gate with three 360 degree hanging LCD screens. The lobby is open for fans even when there isn’t a game – the hours are 11am-6pm Monday-Friday, and on weekends after Labor Day. Check out those huge hanging screens in the video below…
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Let’s Go Pens!

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