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Bowling at the Elks Lodge
Polish your bowling ball and get your satin jacket on – Allegheny West Bowling resumes on Wednesday, January 11th, beginning at 7:30 pm. Bowl with your neighbors every Wednesday throughout the winter on the second floor of the Elks Lodge at 400 Cedar Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15212. Then, stick around for Banjo night performances on the first floor. We hope to see you there!
Jazz Concert at City Books
Join City Books on Saturday, January 14 from 7:00-8:30 pm
The Kyle Simpson Jazz Collective
Hear Kyle on trumpet, along with Paul Thompson on bass and Alex Ayers on keyboard. Kyle calls these guys his “dream team,” so you can be sure it is going to be a terrific night of jazz music. For a sneak preview, listen to “Allegheny Commons Stroll.”
Kyle Simpson, composer, trumpet player, and bandleader, is a graduate from Lawrence Conservatory of Music in Appleton, WI and The University of Montana in Missoula, MT. His composition teachers were Fred Sturm at Lawrence and Charles Nichols at The University of Montana. Simpson has written many works for large jazz groups, chamber jazz groups, solo trumpet, synthesized electronic music, Orchestra, and Wind Ensemble. His compositions have been featured at the Buddy DeFranco Jazz Festival in Missoula, where he also performed with Lew Soloff and Paquito D’Rivera. Other compositions have been featured at the Fête de la Musique Ile d’Yeu, France(2011), Uzmah Upbeat Croatia (2014), Charlotte New Music Festival (2013), Ostrava Days Czech Republic (2011), and The Henry Mancini Institute(2006), Los Angeles. Simpson’s music has been described as, “lively with rhythmic vitality” and also, “lyrical with a brooding elegance.”
A former Northside resident, Simpson currently lives outside of Pittsburgh, PA where he is an Assistant Professor teaching instrumental music at Washington & Jefferson College in Washington, PA. He is also presently in the DMA program in composition at West Virginia University studying with Dr. Joseph Dangerfield and Dr. Sarana Chou.
Check out Kyle’s website for more information.
Free Tickets for Northsiders: Tomorrow’s Parties and Real Magic
Presented by The Andy Warhol Museum and the New Hazlett Theater
January 10 and 11 at 8PM
Northside friends of the New Hazlett, we have a limited number of complimentary tickets available to two exciting upcoming performances, Tomorrow’s Parties and Real Magic, and we’re making them available to you!
Only a limited number of free tickets are available online, so reserve your seats today.
Tomorrow’s Parties
January 10 | 8PM
On a makeshift fairground stage, two performers speculate about what tomorrow might bring—from utopian and dystopian visions to science fiction scenarios, political nightmares, and absurd fantasies. A playful, poignant, and delirious look at futures both possible and impossible, Tomorrow’s Parties is a dramatic take on the Anthropocene.
One of NextPittsburgh’s 10 Pittsburgh Events Not to Miss in January!
This performance is co-presented with The Andy Warhol Museum, the New Hazlett Theater and Carnegie Nexus as part of the series Strange Times: Earth in the Age of the Human. Media sponsors for Strange Times: WYEP 91.3 and 90.5 WESA.
[ebor_button style=”pumpkin” url=”https://www.eventbrite.com/e/free-tickets-to-tomorrows-parties-tickets-30893144226″] Get Your Tickets Today [/ebor_button]
Real Magic
January 11 | 8PM
Real Magic creates a world of absurd disconnection, struggle and comical repetition. Real Magic takes the audience on a hallucinatory journey, creating a compelling performance about optimism, individual agency and the desire for change.
Real Magic was commissioned by The Spalding Gray Consortium: Performance Space 122, The Walker Art Center, The Andy Warhol Museum and On the Boards.
[ebor_button style=”pumpkin” url=”https://www.eventbrite.com/e/free-tickets-to-real-magic-tickets-30893925563″] Get Your Tickets Today [/ebor_button]
Locally-shot Films and International Writers in January
The New Year is about to begin – and, with it, the formal opening of Alphabet City. The bookstore will be open and we will be adding new technologies and features each week, with the grand opening of Casellula @ Alphabet City later in the month.
2017 will open on January 5th with the next film in the Sembène Film & Art Festival: Chico & Rita. This animated film moves from Havana in its pre-Fidel days of big spenders to New York in the heyday of jazz and Paris when foreign musicians were hot. Roger Ebert wrote about it: “It’s entertaining to watch, and I enjoyed the way they slipped in such real-life figures as Dizzy Gillespie beside the fictional leads.The music is terrific. Idania Valdes dubs Rita’s sensuous, smoky singing voice, and the film is essentially constructed as a musical.”
Suzanne Rivecca will be a visiting writer-in-residence at City of Asylum in January (yes, we are fast-becoming known as the Miami of the North, with our balmy weather!). On January 10th, she will be reading from her latest work, which she will be finishing during her residency. Suzanne was nominated by Jill Bialosky, poet and editor at W.W. Norton, who is on our Advisory Board. Her “Death is Not an Option” is a highly praised short story collection.
Did you know Pittsburgh’s very own Randy Gilson (of Randyland) is in a film? To celebrate, we are hosting a double screening of Pursuing Happiness – a documentary featuring one of our favorite Northside neighbors – on Saturday, January 14th and then again on Sunday, January 15th.
[ebor_button style=”pomegranate” url=”http://www.alphabetcity.org”] View the Schedule at alphabetcity.org for All January Events [/ebor_button]
We’re in the Book
The most recent installment of the popular travel guide 1000 Places to See Before You Die by Patricia Shultz, that is. You can get your copy here – and look for Allegheny West on page 229 while you’re discovering all of the other interesting options across the US and Canada!
AWCC Membership Meeting Agenda – December 13, 2016
Calvary United Methodist Church, 971 Beech Ave
Tuesday, December 13th at 7:30 pm
- Visitors
- Councilwoman Harris’s Office
- Mayor’s Community Outreach
- Zone One Police
- Parks Conservancy
- New Neighbors
- Minutes
- Treasurer’s Report
- Welcome to the New Board / Thank You to the Previous Board
- Ways and Means: Christmas Tour
- Early Report
- Five Year Plan with Calvary
- Housing and Planning
- Film Guidelines
- Western Avenue
- Light of Life
- Buhl Grant Meeting
- Western During Galveston
- Green Space: Parklet
- Membership Events
- Bowling Starts in January
- History Project Update
- Property: 806 Western Avenue Improvements
- Friends
- Committee Q&A
Letter from the President – December 2016
It’s hard to believe this is the last President’s message that I’ll be writing (I’m sure that newsletter editors, if no one else, are relieved since I’m notoriously late! Ed. note: Yes.). This will be short but sweet.
Congratulations to our new Board members! (We’re working on a nomination for the Ways and Means for Tuesday’s meeting so please attend so that we have quorum.) Please show them the same wonderful amount of support and engagement that made my two years as President just a pleasure and Allegheny West such an incredible place to live and work.
Cathy Serventi
President, AWCC
President: John DeSantis
Ways and Means Committee: Vacant
Vice President: Ann Gilligan
Membership Committee: Scott Mosser
Treasurer: Dan Adam
Communications Committee: Sara Sweeney
Recording Secretary: Michael Shealey
Housing and Planning Committee: Timothy Zinn
Sergeant-at-Arms: Fran Barbush
Friends of Allegheny West: Trish Burton
Property Committee: Elaine Stone
Ex Officio, Past President: Cathy Serventi
Above & Beyond
Since this is the month of the Christmas tour, if I wrote the Above & Beyond that managed to recognize everyone who helps out with the tour, the newsletter would have to be 20 pages long. Carrie Doyle, our Ways and Means chair, wrangles hundreds of volunteers to make the tour happen. An incredible amount of work goes into managing the tour, so thank you to the:
- homeowners
- folks who answer the phones & handle the tickets
- guides
- train museum volunteers
- volunteers at the houses
- greeters and volunteers at Calvary Church
- folks who handle the luminaria
- bundlers and hangers of greens (shout out to the crew of the show Manhunter who hung some of the greens this year because of their filming on Beech Ave)
- maker of 50+ holly pins for the tour guides
- hosts and volunteers for the volunteer party (very meta)
- booklet designer (Thanks Greg!) and the folks who solicited ads and grants from local businesses
- folks who cleaned up the streets and the neighbors who moved their cars
We literally couldn’t have done it without you! (Hope you had an awesome time at the volunteer part at Mitchell & Elaine’s).
2016 Old Allegheny Victorian Christmas House Tour: Our 35th Year!
Submitted by Carrie Doyle
As I write this, it’s a cold night – 30 degrees to be exact – and I’ve just returned from the Tour Guide training for this year’s tour. This month’s Gazette will be printed post-tour but I wanted to take a moment to reflect and to thank many of you in advance of a busy weekend. A big thank you to Trish Burton, Gloria Rayman, Cathy Serventi, John DeSantis and Carole Malakoff for their words of wisdom and knowledge from the many years of producing such a wonderful tour.
Additionally, Doug Sprague (guides), Brandon Williams (greeters), Mary Ann Murphy & Cecile Canales (trains), Martin Fuess (Christmas Shoppe), Greg Coll (photos, brochure and mailer), Nonie Knauss (house sitters). Of course – our homeowners, too: Clayton Harris, Mark & Kimberly Moore, Carole & Bob Malakoff, Nick Duerlinger & Hal Dixler, Q Development and John DeSantis. I hope to have finalized numbers for January’s Gazette, and a more detailed thank you list as well! Until then, Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!