Imaginary vacations

Our Pittsburgh Mix Tape shapes up nicely with an eclectic mix of artists from the Pittsburgh area. Click here to listen to our playlist. Wiz Khalifa: Cameron Jibril Thomaz is an American rapper known for his Pittsburgh anthem “Black and Yellow”. His video for the song was filmed in Pittsburgh and shows off many of the cities’ sites. I’ve also been told that the Boston Bruins play this song at their games, since their colors are the same as the Penguins. Betty Davis: Davis is an American funk, rock and soul singer (and former moderl – so beautiful). She was also Miles Davis‘s second wife and friend to Jimi Hendrix. Davis grew up in Pittsburgh. Christina Aguilera: X-Tina lived with her mother at her grandmother’s home in Rochester, Pennsylvania, outside Pittsburgh. We’ve all seen X-Tina go from Genie in a Bottle to Dirty to now a mama on the Voice. My husband has had a crush on her for a gazillion years. Mac Miller: Mac was raised in the Point Breeze part of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In 2012 Mac released the EP Pink Slime, a collaboration with Pharrell. Girl Talk:  Greg Gillis (the musician behind Girl Talk) began experimenting with DJing while a student in the Pittsburgh suburb of Bridgeville. The MassArt kids that interview at JHill Design for internships have a great portfolio project where they create an infographic for all the mashups in one Girl Talk song. I’ve always thought they’d be an amazing exhibit, with Girl Talk playing of course. Brett Micheals:  The lead singer from Poison (and the star of Rock of Love) grew up north of Pittsburgh in the city of Butler, Pennsylvania.Listening to “Every Rose Has it’s Thorn” brings me right back to junior high dances at the rec center.

Living in Boston I’ve become accustomed to heavy accents and local vernacular  I think it’s great, (or I think it’s WICKED AWESOME), and always makes me feel tied to my city. Pittsburghese is pretty amazing, so many pronunciations and sayings… We reached out to some Pittsburgh dwellers to have them help us write the text for our Pittsburgh print in Pittsburghese. here are a few fun things we found on the web. –  First here are some exercises to warm you up – If you want to know all the details of Pittsburghese check out this article by PBS. – Here is your list of vocab to practice. – Watching these videos will get you speaking like a pro. This one is my favorite. We paired our favorite Pittsburghese sayings with some of our favorite Pittsburgh celebs. Zachary Quinto, (how cute is he?), Andy Warhol, Christina Aguilera, Michael Keaton, Gene Kelly, Wiz Khalifa, Lurch and (one of my all time favorite actresses) Frances McDormand.

A 2006 study concluded that Pittsburgh has over 446 bridges, beating Venice by 3 – I wonder how many they have 6 years later? The oldest bridge that is still in commission is the Smithfield Bridge (our number 9) which opened in 1883. Many of the cities bridges are painted that bright yellow gold, an official color of Pittsburgh. I can only imagine how much that color pops on a gray day, creating graphic shapes against the cityscape. That thought was the main inspiration for our Pittsburgh pattern. Check out more of Pittsburgh’s major bridges. (All images via wikipedia, please visit and check out more bridge pics by these photographers!) 

I love to eat so our food posts are some of my favorites, I have to say Pittsburgh has some very yummy native foods. 1. IRON CITY BEER Every city should have their own beer. 2. ISALY’S CHIP CHOPPED HAM I made one of these sometime ago, (I’m sure the one I’d get in da ‘Burgh would be 2340958 times better than mine), and I’d say it was a kin to the pulled pork and the shaved steak sandwich. Here are some crazy recipes you can try at home.3. PRIMANTI BROTHER’S SANDWICH Grilled meat, an Italian-dressing-based coleslaw, tomato, and FRENCH FRIES between two pieces of Italian bread. Amazing. Here is how to make your own.4. HEINZ KETCHUP Being from Boston, one of the homes of Theresa Heinz Kerry, I’m quite familiar with the name. I owe a huge debt to Heinz because if our son won’t eat something, you can bet he will if he can dip it in Heinz. 5. KLONDIKE BAR I love these. My dad used to eat them all the time. I once bought the “lower-cal” Klondike bars and realized they were just half the size of the regular bars – and I was ok with that. See here were they were made. 6. CLARK BARS  I’ve never had a Clarks Bar but I plan to run out and get one. The Company was born in two back rooms of a house in Pittsburgh’s North Side in 1886.

In Australia it is hot… SO HOT. The Coober Pedy, Australia golf course offers night tee-off times complete with glowing balls, to avoid daytime temperatures. The course is completely grass-less, and golfers carry a small piece of “turf” from hole to hole to use for teeing off. The Coober Pedy Australia golf club is the only club in the world to enjoy reciprocal rights atThe Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews. Make an appointment for 18 holes at the Coober Pedy Golf Course.

Well… I can’t quite tell you how heartbroken the devastation of the country of Haiti has left me. So sad. I was there in September for 2 weeks working for Aid to Artisans, and I remember every moment of it like it was yesterday… which is really making this all so difficult. While there I stayed at the Hotel Montana, and it became my home away from home. The hotel was unlike any other I’d ever stayed in. I felt totally at home, always comfortable, the staff became friends and it was so beautiful – inside and out. It had this way of transporting me and making me feel like I was playing “the foreigner” in some 1940s Haitian film. And let’s not forget the art there! Well…. after the earthquake it is now a pile of rubble. And the people. All those people inside ... Awful. I just want to share it’s beauty. If I close my eyes I see myself waking up in room 113, getting a tropical fruit smoothie from Jennifer, eating avocado salad in the sun, saying hello to the small Haitian man who sold newspapers every morning by the pool, and my favorite waiter with the BIGGEST smile who never laughed when I asked for club soda with my omelete. The staff there was so amazing. They always listened patiently to my rambling high school french. They were always lovely when bringing me a room service order of piping hot pumpkin soup and grilled cheese (a plus to staying over the kitchen). A favorite memory was when one waiter brought me my dinner towards the end of my trip and exclaimed… “Miss! (first off – I love that he called me Miss and not Ma’m) You have been here for SO LONG!!” I am so...