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Ohiopyle Over the Falls Festival

Friday, August 21st, 2009
Outdoors: Over the falls

It’s time to go over the falls again.

The Ohiopyle Over the Falls Festival, the one time in the year it is legal for kayakers to go over the 18-foot-high falls in that Fayette County town, will be on Saturday, from 9 a.m. through a town party that begins at 7:30 p.m.

Whitewater paddlers will be able to race over the falls, and compete in a river slalom course upstream and a surfing and acrobatics event.

The town party in the evening will feature live music, vendors and pictures from the event. The falls will be illuminated after dark.

The event is sponsored by American Whitewaters, the Pennsylvania Organization for Watersheds & Rivers and the state Department of Conservation & Natural Resources.

Fees to participate in events range from $20 to $30. Observation is free.

Details: FallsRace.com.

— Bob Karlovits

Theater: One-acts take the spotlight

The Pittsburgh New Works Festival kicks off its 19th season Sunday with the first of two evenings of staged readings.

The annual festival is dedicated to fostering the development of original one-act plays. Each year, it debuts 18 original one-acts, each produced by a different theater company. Six receive staged readings during the first two weekends in groups of three. Over each of the remaining four weekends, a different trio of plays receive fully staged performances.

The free staged readings begin at 7 p.m. Sunday for:

• “No Flash Bright Enough” by James Sievert of Switzerland, produced by Actors Civic Theatre.

• “The Desperate Man” by Michele Scaramucci of Belle Vernon, produced by Veronica’s Veil Players.

• “The Mantua-Maker” by Elizabeth Orndorff of Danville, Ky., produced by Comtra Theater.

This year, the Pittsburgh New Works Festival has moved to the Father Ryan Arts Center, 420 Chartiers Ave., McKees Rocks.

Details: 412-394-3353 or www.pittsburghnewworks.org.

— Alice T. Carter

Music: Growing in importance

When the local band Meeting of Important People released its self-titled album in March, expectations were low, especially given the ongoing plight of the record industry. Then things started happening: airplay on WYEP-FM, some good reviews and, just recently, a deal with Authentik, a label based in Los Angeles that’s run by Scott Austin, formerly a creative executive with Maverick/Warner Bros. and Capitol Records.

Authentik repackaged the album as a digital release. Recently, “Meeting of Important People” reached No. 11 on iTunes’ independent album charts; the group also was listed as a featured band on the iTunes site. A video of the song “Brittney Lane Don’t Care,” directed by Thom Glunt (Anti-Flag, Iggy Pop) and shot at a Bloomfield warehouse featuring the group towering over a city constructed from cardboard, will be released soon.

Josh Verbanets (guitar, vocals), Aaron Bubenheim (bass) and Matt Miller (drums, vocals) will perform at 9:30 p.m. Friday at Thunderbird Cafe in Lawrenceville. Ben Hardt and His Symphony and Jupiter One also are on the bill.

Admission: $5.

Details: 412-682-0177 or www.thunderbirdcafe.net.

— Rege Behe

Dance: ‘Step Touch’ under the stars

They’ll be dancing only the hits tonight when Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre presents its annual outdoor performance at Hartwood Acres, part of the Allegheny County Summer Concert Series.

Given the success of choreographer Dwight Rhoden’s “Step Touch” at its premiere performances in March, it’s not surprising the ballet is presenting it again today. Performed to music by Charlie Thomas’ Drifters and Pure Gold, Rhoden’s ballet employs nine couples in an intricate sequence of contemporary dance styles that is breathtaking.

The concert will be completed by George Balanchine’s exquisitely conceived “Theme and Variations” to music by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky.

The performance starts at 7:30 p.m. at Hartwood Acres, Hampton. Admission is free.

Details: 412-281-0360.

— Mark Kanny

Jazz: From Rio with love

Versatile song stylist Kenia returns to the Cultural District on Tuesday, bringing her distinctive mix of jazz, pop and Brazilian accents.

A native of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Kenia has “a wonderfully expressive vocal instrument that throbs with sultry intensity. It’s low key, yet ultra bright,” JazzTimes magazine says. Her repertoire ranges from Antonio Carlos Jobim and Gilberto Gil to Stevie Wonder and Harold Arlen.

The free performance starts at 5 p.m. Tuesday at Katz Plaza, Cultural District, Downtown.

Details: 412-456-6666.

— Mark Kanny

Art: Working together

This Saturday, art and fashion collide in “Synergy,” a fashion show and multimedia art event that will focus on the creative aspects of fashion design, melding them with other art forms to create an evening of “synergy” and collaboration.

The evening will showcase work from several talented Pittsburgh artists, taking the form of music, dance, fashion and sculpture. The work of eight fashion designers will be trotted out among works by a half-dozen local artists to the music of Ishtar, Nadina and Kellee Maize, and dance performances by The Pillow Project and Sadiqa Bellydance.

Event organizer Jesse Riesmeyer says the inspiration came from the drive and desire to bridge the gap between fashion and art.

Admission is $12. Synergy runs from 8 p.m. to 1 a.m. at the Meter Room, 2637 Chartiers Ave, West End.

Details: 412-728-0724.

— Kurt Shaw

Special events: Pittsburgh landmarks tour

Get a fresh, in-depth look at a neighborhood you thought you knew.

From noon to 1 p.m. Friday and Aug. 28, Pittsburgh History & Landmarks is offering a free tour of the area around Fourth Avenue and PPG Place, Downtown.

The neighborhood, one of 18 National Register Districts in the city, contains buildings constructed between 1836 and 1984 from designs by more than a dozen distinguished architects.

Styles range from Greek revival to post modern and include buildings tall and small. Some have been repurposed from their original intention, and others serve multiple new uses or are awaiting renovation.

The tour begins from the parklet at Fourth Avenue and Smithfield Street and lasts one hour.

The tour is free, but Pittsburgh History & Landmarks asks that those who plan to attend let organizers know at least one day before the event.

To RSVP or for details, contact Mary Lu Denny at 412-471-5808, ext. 527, or marylu@phlf.org.

— Alice T. Carter

Jazz: Sharing the stage

Bassist Jeff Grubbs sometimes is known as Jeffrey, but he is not playing jazz on those occasions.

Grubbs is a member of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and bears the full name in the more formal settings. But he loves playing jazz as well as the classics and will show off his skills in that direction at the “Reservoir of Jazz” concert Sunday in Highland Park.

Grubbs and his wife, Tania, a singer, will offer a set of standards, which Grubbs hopes to give something of a twist, and some post-bop material.

Tania, who does some music teaching, is not a performance professional but enjoys being on the stage. Jeff says they have had enough musical spots in the past year or so that “her confidence is really getting up there.”

Music begins at 5 p.m. at the concert site near the end of Highland Avenue. It is free.

Details: 412-255-8975.

Outdoors: Pittsburgh by bike

Moving into the final two days of BikeFest, the Rivers of Steel National Heritage Area and BikePGH will co-sponsor a historic bike tour of industrial Pittsburgh on Saturday.

The casual, 6-mile ride will tour and discuss remnants of the steel industry still visible in the South Side and along the Eliza Furnace Trail on the other side the Monongahela River.

It is part BikeFest, the 10-day celebration of bicycling put together by BikePGH, the bicycle-pedestrian advocacy group.

The 90-minute ride will begin at 9 a.m. at Bessemer Court in Station Square. Reservations are required, and participation is $20; $10 for members.

Details: 412-464-4020.

— Bob Karlovits

Books: The write stuff

There are gaggles of geese, prides of lions, congregations of alligators and coalitions of cheetahs. There’s no term for a group of writers — swarm or colony might fit — perhaps because they so rarely congregate in numbers.

That will happen Friday when Penguin Bookshop in Sewickley will present “Jazzed About Local Authors,” an opportunity to meet some of the many writers who live in Western Pennsylvania.

Writers scheduled to appear include Rebecca Drake, Anne Faigen, Kathleen George, Laurie Graham, Kathryn Miller Haines, Carrie Kennedy, Many Ly, Debbie Mancini-Wilson, Shanthee Manjoo, Nancy Martin, Lewis “Buddy” Nordan, Leanne Paranik, Lila Shaara and Heather Terrell.

The event, which starts at 4 p.m., is free.

Details: 412-741-3838 or www.penguinbookshop.com.

— Rege Behe

Music: Masked musicians

Like KISS, Los Straitjackets have a gimmick.

Unlike KISS, which shed its makeup for a while, Los Straitjackets never have stopped wearing their signature Mexican wrestling masks that make them look like, well, oversized Mexican wrestlers onstage.

Don’t let that fool you; Los Straitjackets are in no way a novelty band, but one of the more energetic, instrumental groups currently performing. A new album, “The Further Adventures of Los Straightjackets,” features the band’s stratospheric garage rock that recalls the Ventures by way of the Ramones.

Los Straitjackets perform Friday at the Rex Theatre, South Side. Admission for the 8:30 p.m. show is $17.50.

Details: 412-381-6811 or www.rextheatre.com.

— Rege Behe

Funny business

Appearing tonight at the Pittsburgh Improv — Gov. Ed Rendell (via video) and various judicial and mayoral candidates.

They’ll tell jokes. We’re not joking when we tell you this.

The second annual Candidates Comedy Night is a fundraiser organized by the Allegheny County Department of Human Services. With Sen. Arlen Specter on the bill, it promises to be funnier than a town hall meeting on health care reform. And please, when you pay for your two-drink minimum, don’t heckle Dan Onorato by yelling “Hey, thanks for the drink tax!”

The candidates and elected officials are joking for a good cause. Proceeds will benefit children and youth served by the Allegheny County Department of Human Services and the Juvenile Section of the Family Division of the Court of Common Pleas.

Doors will open at 5 p.m., and at that time, a full menu and drinks will be available for purchase. The comedy show will begin promptly at 7:30 p.m. Sections of eight seats are available now at the following levels: Platinum section, $1,000 donation; Gold section, $750 donation; Silver section, $500 donation. A limited number of individual seats will be available for a $50 donation.

Details: 412-350-3428.

— William Loeffler

Special events: Need a lift?

The Pennsylvania Trolley Museum is offering the Park ‘N’ Ride trolley service to the Washington County Fair, through Saturday. The trolley service is available from 5 p.m. to midnight daily, and roundtrip tickets cost $2.

Riders will board the trolley at the Cooper House-Hinds Parking Lot and will be dropped off at the fair’s main gate. Tours of the Chartiers, Washington County museum are available for $9; $8 for senior citizens; $5 for ages 3-15; and free for those younger than 3.

Details: 724-228-9256 or www.pa-trolley.org.

— Kellie B. Gormly

Source: pittsburghlive.com

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From de Kooning to hookers, 50 years in the Downtown art scene

Friday, August 21st, 2009
From de Kooning to hookers, 50 years in the Downtown art scene

From de Kooning to hookers, 50 years in the Downtown art scene

Leonard Rosenfeld stood beside his latest self-portrait, wavering slightly.

The piece, in green, fuchsia and black pastel, hung in Rosenfeld’s hospital room at N.Y.U. Medical Center, where he was awaiting heart surgery last week. In the drawing, Rosenfeld, 82, clenched a paintbrush; his goatee and black-framed glasses made the resemblance unmistakable.

Rosenfeld’s wife and friends, who gathered at the hospital last week, were careful to refer to the drawing, completed a week earlier, as the artist’s “latest,” not his “last.” And Rosenfeld was in good spirits as well, despite his bandages and institutional surroundings. With growing vigor, he told stories from his half-century in New York’s Downtown arts scene, encompassing everything from the wild ’50s and ’60s to the more sedate present.

“Those days were pretty intense,” he said of his start in the decades after World War II. “That’s when art, you were really with it every moment, not like today.”

Rosenfeld’s expressionist work vibrates with sharp lines and overt feeling, whether in his early black-crayon drawings of elevated railroad tracks or his more recent oil paintings of soldiers in the Iraq War. The figures in his paintings often loom large and exaggerated, and he juxtaposes images of Minnie Mouse and guns, or a toilet and an American flag, to make political points.

Among his most nontraditional works are his “wire paintings,” in which he wrapped colorful wire around rectangular canvas stretchers to create representational images. The wire paintings sell for five figures.

Some of Rosenfeld’s strongest memories from his career come from the Cedar Tavern, the bar on University Pl. that served as informal headquarters of the abstract expressionist movement in the 1950s and ’60s.

“Everybody was there,” Rosenfled said, listing his friends Willem de Kooning and Franz Kline. Jackson Pollock was a regular, too, but he was in the Hamptons when Rosenfeld arrived on the scene and he was killed there before Rosenfeld could meet him.

Art was a common topic of conversation — de Kooning, in particular, would speak of nothing else — but the Cedar was far from a buttoned-up affair. Rosenfeld once found de Kooning lying in the gutter outside, passed out and covered in money. Rosenfeld collected the bills, gave them to the bartender, and dragged de Kooning home. After settling de Kooning into bed, Rosenfeld returned to the Cedar, where, several hours later, he was surprised to see the artist walk in, cleaned up and ready to continue drinking.

Another night, de Kooning recalled overhearing Clement Greenberg and another art critic talking at the Cedar. When Greenberg said Pollock was the greatest painter of the day, de Kooning turned around and slapped the critic in the face. The men jumped on each other and started throwing punches, until Rosenfeld and others stepped in to separate them.

Rosenfeld also recalled a deal he witnessed between Kline and an art collector, in which Kline agreed to trade several of his mammoth black-and-white paintings to the collector in exchange for a brand-new Ferrari shipped directly from Italy. Kline and the art collector shook on it, and shortly thereafter Kline drove up to the Cedar in his new Ferrari, which Rosenfeld said became a regular fixture out front.

As Rosenfeld described the all-night loft parties, the artists who grew rich overnight and the sudden death of Andy Warhol, he shook his head.

“Those were moments, they were like a movie script,” Rosenfeld said. “Everybody was pretty wild.”

“You’ll never have a scene like that again,” Rosenfeld added. “That was truly like a renaissance…a modern renaissance. Everything went dead after that, as far as I’m concerned. The whole art scene kind of died after abstract expressionism.”

Rosenfeld isn’t an abstract expressionist himself, because he felt that type of work had already been done. Rosenfeld’s work has a similar intensity but is representational and often tells a story. He takes inspiration from current events and his own observations, and much of his work makes a political statement.

“I never really had any goals,” Rosenfeld said. “The only goal is what I was doing immediately.”

Rosenfeld’s artwork has drawn many acolytes, including Danny Simmons, an artist and gallery owner who was recently named chairperson of the New York State Council on the Arts, and who is also Russell Simmons’ brother.

“Len’s work is direct,” Simmons said by phone this week. “You get a certain feeling about the artist, what he thinks about and what he feels about it.”

Simmons has shown Rosenfeld’s work several times, including a solo exhibit of post-9/11 paintings that reflect Rosenfeld’s memories of the day, which include seeing people jump from the smoking towers. After 9/11, Rosenfeld did a series of paintings depicting pink angels floating against a background of multicolored dots, reflecting the confusion over how to “connect the dots” of what happened that day.

Simmons thinks Rosenfeld is under-recognized in the art world because he doesn’t promote himself the way other artists do.

“He spent his time being an artist,” Simmons said. “Len just does the work, and he’s really successful with the work.”

Rosenfeld’s longtime friend, the artist Vernita Nemec, likes Rosenfeld’s work because it is personal.

“He’s got a very aggressive approach to reality,” Nemec said. “It’s never abstract. There’s always a kind of strength.”

Rosenfeld’s projects often start with big ideas — like the General David Petraeus quote referring to the Iraq War, “Tell me how this ends?” — but his process remains focused on the act of creating art.

As he works, Rosenfeld said, “I’m not feeling anything else but what it requires to do the painting or the drawing.”

Asked what he wanted to do next, Rosenfeld at first turned glum.

“I don’t know if I’m going to do anything next,” he said. But after a few minutes Rosenfeld perked up, and interrupted another thought to add, “I’d like to do something very big, like the size of the wall,” he said. “But I don’t know what it would be exactly.”

Rosenfeld had heart surgery Tuesday, several days after the interview, to replace his aortic valve. The next day, his wife Janet Hoffman said he was recovering as well as could be expected.

Rosenfeld’s memory is still strong, but it sometimes requires a jump-start, usually provided by Hoffman, a lawyer. During the interview last week, Hoffman, 63, encouraged her husband to tell a reporter how he made his early railroad drawings.

“How did I make them?” Rosenfeld asked.

“Well, you tell her,” Hoffman replied.

“I don’t know — I’m asking you how I made them,” Rosenfeld said.

“You remember,” Hoffman said, and it turned out that he did. Rosenfeld paused, then launched into the narrative of his 1957 railroad drawings: how he perched on elevated train stations in Brooklyn and Queens, sketching furiously with black crayon, using sharp lines to render the tracks weaving between the buildings.

Several of the drawings are on display now in the Van Der Plas Gallery on Pier 17 until Aug. 28.

“It just comes from his soul,” said Adriaan van der Plas, who has owned the Seaport gallery for 18 years. The railroad drawings are among Rosenfeld’s strongest work because of their immediacy, van der Plas said.

Rosenfeld also has several upcoming exhibits, including a show opening Oct. 15 at Salomon Arts in Tribeca and one opening mid-September at Sabay, a Thai restaurant in Jackson Heights.

Rosenfeld was born in Brooklyn in 1926 and was drafted to serve in World War II while still in high school. During the war, while posted in Guam, he filled the walls of a warehouse with “lascivious, pornographic drawings,” as he put it. When a general discovered the drawings during a routine inspection, Rosenfeld expected to be reprimanded. But instead, the general asked if he could take some of the drawings to keep.

“I said, ‘Sure, take what you want,’” Rosenfeld said.

After the war, Rosenfeld attended The Art Students League on 57th St. and then spent the next decade alternating between collecting unemployment and working in odd jobs like framing and delivering food. Rosenfeld also married a woman he met at art school and they had two daughters together, but the marriage didn’t last. All the while, Rosenfeld continued creating art.

His first break came in 1980 when he convinced Ivan Karp, owner of the OK Harris Gallery in Soho, to show some of his large minimalist paintings. Karp’s support immediately brought in buyers and also helped Rosenfeld get shows elsewhere.

Rosenfeld has lived in Lower Manhattan for over 40 years and can’t imagine living elsewhere.

“Why did I stay?” he said, echoing a reporter’s query. “It was never a question of that.”

Rosenfeld lived and worked on Forsyth St. between Broome and Grand Sts. from 1958 until 1991. The neighborhood inspired his “hookers and pimps” series in the 1980s, when the material was literally on his doorstep.

“Day and night we had hookers,” Rosenfeld said, cracking a smile. “The hookers were alright, but the pimps could be pretty rough.”

Rosenfeld frequently saw prostitutes and johns, including a rabbi one time having sex in Sara D. Roosevelt Park across the street from his apartment.

Rosenfeld had a standing joke with the prostitutes who hung out in front of his apartment.

“One of them would come over to me and she’d grab me — by the balls — and she’d say, ‘How ’bout a date, Pop?’” Rosenfeld said, laughing. “And they’d all wait for me [to respond] and I would say, ‘Stay cool baby.’ Every morning. And they would all start laughing — that was like the morning joke.”

The neighborhood changed when Chinese immigrants arrived in droves. More children were around and the prostitutes disappeared. Rosenfeld’s landlord tried to throw him out, but he won a court battle to stay.

Still, when Rosenfeld married for the second time in 1991, he realized it was time to move. Hoffman, his new wife, deserved better quarters than a shared hallway bathroom, and they settled on a live/work space in the Financial District, where they have lived ever since.

The rabbi who married the couple asked why they didn’t just move up to Hoffman’s apartment on E. 79th St.

Rosenfeld explained his reasoning: “I got five grapefruits for a dollar Downtown,” he recalled telling the rabbi. “You had to spend a dollar to get one grapefruit in her neighborhood Uptown. The rabbi said, ‘Oh, I understand.’”

Rosenfeld’s work is on display at the Van Der Plas Gallery on Pier 17 through Aug. 28, open 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily (vanderplasgallery.com, 212-227-8983).

By Julie Shapiro
Source: www.downtownexpress.com

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Local, regional acts bring energy to musical stages at Sterlingfest

Monday, August 10th, 2009
The Square Pegz, a Clawson-based band that performs hits of the 1980s with a highly visual and energetic flair, returns to Sterlingfest Art & Music Fair in Sterling Heights on Thursday night. The fest runs July 30-Aug. 1.

The Square Pegz, a Clawson-based band that performs hits of the 1980s with a highly visual and energetic flair, returns to Sterlingfest Art & Music Fair in Sterling Heights on Thursday night. The fest runs July 30-Aug. 1.

The most notable aspect about the music lineup for this year’s Sterlingfest Art & Music Fair is the lack of nationally known performers — but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

There’s no doubt the attraction of star power is a big plus for any free outdoor festival, but local and regional bands booked by the fair organizers have the desire and energy to provide an entertaining weekend.

A further plus — promoters don’t have to deal with the outlandish backstage demands of major rock stars.

“These bands are thrilled if we give them each a bottle of water,” said Mike Crimmins, broadcast services manager for the Sterling Heights Community Relations Department.

Sterlingfest runs July 30-Aug. 1 at the corner of Dodge Park and Utica roads in Sterling Heights with an extensive variety of food, kids’ activities, a juried art show and live entertainment.

Each night features a headline act on the Dodge Park Concert Series Stage with more than two dozen bands and performers taking various stages in the daytime.

On Thursday night, the Square Pegz, an Oakland County-based band performing hits of the 1980s with a highly visual stage show, appear at 7 p.m. following the release of 5,000 balloons in the park.

The July 31 showcase acts include the Prolifics, a five-man Detroit-based vocal group celebrating 50 years of Motown hits, along with FunkinBluzin, a horn-driven blues-based band.

Closing out the series on Aug. 1 are vocalist Alyssa Simmons followed by Fleetwood Dreams, a tribute band performing all of the classic rock hits of Fleetwood Mac.

Meanwhile, regional and local bands perform on the Jazz & Blues Court Stage and the Suds N’ Sounds Stage include a number of bands with ties to Sterling Heights such as Nightline, Chill FX and blues guitarist Jim McCarty with Mystery Train. McCarty has been the driving force behind Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels, The Rockets and other bands.

Other outstanding musicians on the bill include Count Bracey & the Pleasure Tones, who recently won the Detroit Blues Society’s Best Band Award; Chicago-based jazz pianist Rob Ryndak; Big Foot Bob & the Toe Tappers and more.

For children, there are numerous magicians, jugglers, puppeteers and musical acts performing in the daytime through the evening.

A complete entertainment schedule is available at www.sterlingfest.info.

Sterlingfest hours are 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. each day, with free parking and $1 shuttle bus service available at schools along Dodge Park Road and on city-owned property. Admission to the Suds ‘n’ Sounds Refreshment Tent is $2 per person ages 21 and older after 6 p.m. Utica Road between 18 Mile Road and Dodge Park will be closed from July 29 through Aug. 2.

Source: www.dailytribune.com
Written by: Mitch Hotts, Journal Register News Service

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