Yes We Can

The other day Mrs. TANBI and I got to attend an Obama campaign event.  They did the thing on the CFA lawn on campus and faculty and alumni could get tickets.  It seemed like it was going to be difficult to get in, but in the end I think there was plenty of space.

The tickets said noon, but the email from the school said 11:30 and we didn't want to be too far back.  We left for campus on foot at 10:50.  At that moment the President was live on CNN in Poland Ohio.  We should have taken the hint.

When we got to campus we lined up for security by the back door to Skibo and then went through a line all the way across the face of the UC and across to Purnell.  They had magnetometers and hand search for everyone before you could get in.  Really this part didn't take too long at all and we were probably standing in place waiting on the event by 12:10.

I'd originally thought the event was at noon.  I was wrong.  We got there in plenty of time, but then we waited through the heat of the day until around 2:15 for the speech.  For the first part of the wait we amused ourselves spotting the spotters.

Truth be told I think those folks were there for us to see (ok, maybe not that last guy).  I kept wondering where the agents I couldn't see were.

After a while they filled some.  There was an opening prayer, and then a song from a CMU student.  We heard a short speech from the Obama/Biden campaign coordinator for the region.  After that we got to see Franco Harris.

He probably could have talked a lot longer than he did.  Around this point Mrs. TANBI started to see tweets saying the President was in the area - actually that he had stopped for cookies.

Eventually we started to see young men with severe haircuts and ear pieces in the crowd and then in a moment Senator Casey was doing an intro and then there he was.

It turned out the speech was mostly the say as I'd heard on the TV that morning when he was in Ohio.  I guess on West Wing they would have called it "modified stump."  There was a lot of common material punctuated with the occasional "like they're doing right here at Carnegie Mellon."  He did start out with some talk about baseball, what with the Pirates and the White Sox both leading their divisions.

It was a decent speech after a very long wait on a very, very hot, sunny day.  The organizers did a good job.  They had bottle after bottle of water and people with sprayers watering down the crowd.  Even with all that we did see many people overcome by the heat (or maybe the anticipation).

I'm glad we went.  I even got a somewhat ephemeral souvenir.

Another Melissa Concert

The Post Gazette said "Without question, it was the gayest Melissa Etheridge concert ever."

I would concur.  Mrs. TANBI and I went to see Melissa at the Pittsburgh Pride festival last weekend.

The show was general admission and there were no seats.  A little bit my feat still hurt.  Doors were at 6:00.  The plan was there would be a DJ until 8:45 and then Melissa for 90 minutes and then another DJ until midnight.  When we got there, one of the lighting guys we know said that the end of the show was scheduled for 2am - ouch.

What really happened was that there was a DJ until around 8:45 and then there was some talking, and then some drag, and then an opening act, and then time for setup.  Melissa didn't get on until easily 9:30ish.

We didn't come in at doors open.  When we got downtown there was already a line to get in so we decided to get something to eat.  It was fun looking at people and trying to guess if they were there for Pride, one of the theatres, the ArtsFest, or the Pirate game.  I think we got in a little before 7:00.  Right off we managed to weave out way up to maybe 25 feet back.  Sometime a little later I got particularly aggressive and we moved up to maybe 12 feet.  By the time Melissa started her set we were probably 4 or 5 bodies back.  I was a little disappointed to see that they'd put up barriers to keep the crowd 4 feet from the stage.

I didn't shoot many pictures.  Several concerts ago I decided I'd rather watch the show first hand than watch it through a viewfinder.  If you don't keep the camera ready all the time you normally don't get the best shots and that being ready keeps me from really enjoying the show.  So these are camera phone shots.  I learned a little about my phone camera - mostly I am trying to remember which way it thinks is down so the pictures don't need as much editing (also learned that stage lighting tends to wash things out and that the front camera has not nearly the resolution of the rear).

Since taking pictures wasn't keeping me from enjoying things there'd inevitably be something else.  In this particular case that thing was a drunk or altered middle aged lesbian woman with some boundary issues and a propensity to should "sign my dick!"  She had a balloon wrapped around her arm she was having people sign.  It was cute for the first 10 minutes.

The PG wasn't wrong. The show was definitely a little different because of it being a pride event.  Mostly I think is was about things that weren't the set list: things she said and things she improvised.  The set list was pretty good.  I don't think we got to hear anything from the next album but there were tunes from the whole catalog.  It was great to hear Silent Legacy and Meet me in the Back.  I still miss The Angels and Giant and Secret Agent but there isn't time for everything (and I suspect there are other reasons aside from time in play).

I've got a better version of this pic from a prior concert...

Maybe it would have been better with the rear facing camera - but then I wouldn't have been able to aim.  Someday I will have to make a list of all the shows so I can keep track.

The show ended around midnight with Like the Way I Do.  Kind of astoundingly a bunch of people left right after their curtain call, which turned out to be before the encore.  So for the very last song I got to move up even closer, but no handshake due to the configuration.  After that we got ourselves some water and soda and took our aching feet to the car. 

I don't know if the late DJ went past 2am.

First Night 2011-12

Mrs. TANBI and I have a New Years tradition - she goes to work and I hang around like her entourage. It seems like each year the project grows just a little. This year the work crept out all the way down Penn Ave to 9th.

One of the coolest parts of the job is watching other people take photos. This year there were several families where they kids would lay down in the street for a picture. I didn't get one of those, but here's a very meta photo of someone else taking a photo.

Sometimes the pictures aren't really enough to see what's going on...



Of course the end of the evening is fireworks. This time ringing in the New Year was Rusted Root...




Things are usually too busy for me to really make sure I get it in, so once again: Great Job Mrs. TANBI! And Happy New Year!

Dark-Night-Around-The-Block

What do you do on a nice sunny and thankfully not to hot Saturday in Pittsburgh? Many people went to the Pride Festival. Many people went to the Three Rivers Arts Festival.

And many, many people waited in line all day to be extras in a film we suspect is the next installment of The Dark Night...


This is like 1:00pm. One of my students working down at the point said people were cued around the block when he was going to work at 10:00.


Just goes on and on and on. I hope they got in the movie.

Ok, I Give?

Why on Earth would NBC do that?

For the last couple of Penguins games the telecast has been on the Versus Network. Popular wisdom has been that their coverage has been well... meh, but they have done something that has gone over very well here in town. They had allowed the Penguins and the Arena to use the telecast on a giant screen in the parking lot. I happened to be downtown (dahntahn) one night this was going on and the local response was great. From the shots on television there appeared to be quite a number of people that could not get tickets to the game but still wanted to come down and be part of the action.

Overall very cool.

Apparently NBC deosn't think so. They have the next game - critical game six, with the cup on the line and they have decided they won't be allowing the use of the telecast in that way.

So my question is: Why on Earth would they do that?

Are they worried about their local ratings in Pittsburgh? Do they have to pay their on-air talent more for the additional airing? It can't be that advertisers are complaining. Seems like the people that go will watch whether they are at home on their sets or at the arena on theirs.

They've got maybe 20 hours to change their minds. I sure hope they do. This was something positive for the NHL and for Pittsburgh. Be a shame to shut it down, whatever the reason.

My Friend is Cross

Image via Wikipedia

Maybe you should be too:

Open letter to Mayor Luke Ravenstahl and the Pittsburgh Board of Education

Mayor Ravenstahl:

I am sure you are aware of the planned delay scheduled for Pittsburgh Public Schools this upcoming Monday, February 2.

I want you also to be aware that, happy as I am for the Steelers, this is in no way appropriate, and I am livid, and disappointed beyond belief, with the people in charge of my child's education.

I am the parent of a second-grader and a kindergartener in the Pittsburgh Public Schools system. My children have had at least three previous snow/cold days this winter, and at least a couple delays. Inconvenient though these may be, I fully understand the necessity of keeping our students safe, warm, and protected from the elements and/or hazardous road conditions.

But to schedule a school delay because of a football game (however "important" and exciting it may be)? The event is the NIGHT BEFORE, not during school hours (not that I personally think that would be ok either, but that's neither here nor there.) I am beside myself with anger and astonishment. We are tacitly condoning any sort of immature behavior that would affect parents' and employees' ability to do their jobs the next day- to get their kids to school, and to transport and teach our students. Worse (in my opinion), we seem to be expecting this sort of behavior from people to whom we entrust our children, and I for one think it's insulting to my sons' fine teachers and aides to assume they can't be responsible enough to perform their jobs the next day.

How can PPS continue to try to lure parents to the public school system, using, among other things, the Pittsburgh Promise, improved test scores, and incentives such as the IB program, and then delay school because of any or all of the above reasons? How do you expect the students to take our efforts as engaged parents and educators seriously? What sort of example does this flagrant disregard for the importance of education set for our children?

Also, we must consider the impact a school delay has on many parents who struggle to obtain adequate childcare for legitimate delays. To force a parent to juggle these issues for a football game is insulting.

In addition, my son will miss, for the third week in a row, his scheduled gifted education program. I plan to look into how these district-enforced absences impact his IEP, and perhaps the tax dollars received by the district due to the services they are supposed to provide due to those IEPs.

I have emailed everyone in charge I can think of and asked them to consider canceling this delay. I have asked them to please consider impressing upon our children how very important it is to be mature and responsible about the privileges of education.

And you as Mayor of this fine city should know that if you intend to continue to improve Pittsburgh's public school system, this sort of disregard for educational standards is completely unacceptable.

Thank you.

Mrs. TANBI Does It Again

No Mitch for You

Continuing to try to clear the backlog of images taken for the blog...


I don't think there's much a sadder thing than seeing Mitch in your lot and knowing you can't have any. How sad.

Overtime

There's nothing quite like NHL Playoff overtime.

I wonder if the Pen's can stay alive.

Really?

Mayor, council in hockey fight: "Mr. Shields' advice for Penguins fans who want big signs: 'Get a bedsheet and hang it off your front porch.'"

You know, people ought to really do this. Everyone in Pittsburgh ought to do this. Then maybe they would see how unfortunate it is to say something like that. FOLKS, THE PENS ARE IN THE STANLEY CUP, IT WILL BE ON WORLD WIDE TV, NOW IS THE TIME TO MAKE PITTSBURGH LOOK COOL, YOU KNOW, SO PEOPLE WILL MOVE TO HERE INSTEAD OF AWAY FROM HERE.

Get your shit together down there, you're making us look like metro West Virginia. How sad.

(All caps and bold, I wonder what that is?)

First Night 07/08

Well, it didn't rain.


Our Rocket made another appearance...


This year I built little roofs to keep out the rain...

... did I mention it didn't rain?

No confetti this year. Last year we used this dissolving confetti. Some of it is still there:

So the city decided they neither wanted more glued on dissolving confetti or to pay for people to clean up normal confetti. So, no confetti; as it turns out there was plenty to clean up anyway.

Mrs. TANBI had some new stuff this year. There was a gobo effect at Penn & 9th...

... to commemorate Pittsburgh's 250th birthday.

There were also three new looks in the show...

Dancing Happy Birthday:

Happy Birthday with bubbles:

And snowflakes:


I tried to shoot video of the finale again this year and again my camera wouldn't really cooperate. So there are two videos (which youtube squashed some), one for the top and one for the end...





All in all it was the big fun and a good gig. Thumbs up!

Tomorrow It Will Just Look Like a Shutout

Who cares if it was 0-0 for nearly the entire game? Who cares if they couldn't run against the worst defense in the league? Who cares if Ben got sacked a boatload of times - again?

A win is a win.

Meltdown

So little blogging these days. I spend all my time grabbing strike articles for the other page.

I just thought I would take a moment to ask the world at large what the heck is the Steelers problem on the opponent's last possession? Really guys, it's ok, you don't have to make it interesting. It'd be fine by all of us if you just kept on the stifling defense we've been watching for the whole second half - peachy.

Except, now for two weeks in a row the stiff play just seems to abruptly come to a halt just as the game is coming to an end. If they could manage one more series it would be fine, but for some reason teams that hadn't been able to string together five plays, quarterbacks without a completion for the entire half, offensive squads without a first down in memory just seem to march right down the field into kicking range.

Last week we dodged a bullet. But for a careless penalty the results could have been the same as today.

Oh wait, that reminds me, it's not just the defense, its the kicking coverage too. That's where the last minute nightmare begins, giving the opponent the decent field position they need to dig in and start their final drive.

Please guys, the game is four full quarters. Kick coverage has to go all the way to the end. Inspired defense needs to go all the way to the end. Exciting finishes are all well and good, but I think most fans in Pittsburgh would opt for something a little more boring that resulted in a win.

Sunset

I took this picture with my phone that isn't a camera. I think it's pretty cool:


The fall sunsets in Pittsbugh are pretty nice, yes?

It's Just Not a Camera

Much as they might like you to think so, the camera on my Moto RAZR just isn't really a camera.



Next time I'll remember to bring the real thing.

In the meantime, enjoy (as much as you can) these image caps from the Chihuly exhibition at Phipps. If you're in Pittsburgh, you really ought to go.

And just as a sideline, if you go, don't spend the whole time talking on your phone. Nobody else there came to listen to you:

"Oh, yeah, I'm at the Phipps thing, had to see it before it closed."

If you were so concerned, why are you spending your whole trip yammering on the phone?