More info about the new BBT mural:

There's an article in this week's City Paper about the new BBT muralright here

Purple Drain, Purple Drain

This is tonight, and it looks like a good time

i guess i have about 12 minutes of fame left.

I'm proud to say that this very blog (and this very blogger) was mentioned in an article about the Banana Stand in this week's Pitt News!


Cynthia Yogmas, a library and information sciences student at Pitt, who runs Bloomfield412.blogspot.com, said the addition of the Banana Stand is much needed.

"I think it complements the Grasso Roberto cafe, another neighborhood business nearby which serves fresh gelato," she said.

Yogmas also added that new businesses help beautify the historically Italian neighborhood.

"If you walk down Liberty Avenue, closer to the Bloomfield Bridge, you'll see a vacant storefront that used to be an ice cream shop but hasn't operated in years. That's unfortunate, considering the family/community element of the neighborhood who would benefit from it. [Daisy's Banana Stand] is something we really needed," she said.

Read it here.

these are a few of my favorite things

1. Paul's CDs. In college, I'd take the 54C here to buy used indie rock cds. Now, I walk up the street to here to buy used indie rock cds.

2. Bocce tournaments under the Bloomfield Bridge. Great for watching cute Italian men of all ages!

3. Dreaming Ant video. Thank you for rekindling my interest in David Lynch films!

4. The view from my back porch. It's like 'Mary Poppins' up there. I can see over everyone's rooftops, all the way to the North Side on one end and Oakland on the other. At night, it's particularly awesome.

5. Italian Days - the annual festival that closes off traffic on Liberty Ave. and hosts food vendors, games, Frank Sinatra impersonators, an outdoor screening of "Moonstruck," and something awesome called an "Italian egg roll"

the times, they are a'changing

So all this talk about the BBT's new sign reminded me about how much the neighborhood has changed in the past few years, and how it is continuing to do so. First of all, real estate has gone way up. Not even 4 years ago, I looked into houses going at $50,000, but today those same types of houses on the same streets are at the very least $80,000. The Goodwill at the end of Liberty turned into a car dealership, while a car dealership down the street went out of business. A movie theater (long closed) turned into a Starbucks/sandwich shop, while plans for a new movie theater are being made on the lot of another closed car dealership. It's all part of a multi-million dollar development plan slated to redesign the Baum-Liberty corridor. In place of the Don Allen Auto City car dealerships, there are plans to build condos, a hotel, a grocery store, a movie theater, and buildings for office, retail, and medical use. Seems pretty impressive in scope, and the impact it will have on the community will hopefully be positive. You can read more about it here.

whoomp, there it is.

I couldn't get the best angle from my car this morning, but here is the new mural. Maybe I was a little too harsh the other day. Maybe I just fear change. At any rate, it's certainly different.

work in progress

Here's a picture of the mural's progress as of yesterday - pulled from an Internet messageboard.

NOT THE SAME.