(Things to do in between checking prices on flights to Florida…)
Friday, February 9
Ron Jeremy Book Signing , 7:00 p.m., Joseph Beth Booksellers, Sahsside Works
With appearances in Reindeer Games (2000), The Boondock Saints (1999) and 21 Hump Street (1988), Mr. Jeremy has carved out a career noteworthy for…
Ah, screw it, he’s a porn star, but a brilliant one. Well-educated and well-spoken, Ron’s never taken himself too seriously, and has always seemed to treat the industry he chose with exactly the right amount of respect it deserves, which is to say, not much most of the time. But the man has always known how to market, and he’s incredibly media-savvy. Well now he’s gone and wrote himself one o’ them there books, titled “The Hardest (Working) Man In Show Business“. (I get it, yeah. It’s a boner joke, right.) and his signing tour stops in to the South Side tonight. I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say he’ll probably sign body parts if you ask him to.
Soulcialism, 10:00 p.m., The White Eagle, Sahsside
This month is special, it is, as Soulcialism celebrates it’s Fourth Anniversary, or Birthday, or whatever word would be appropriate. (Ah, I see… “Fourthiversary”. There we go.) As always, it takes place in the smoky, funky, sweaty confines of the Eagle, Pittsburgh’s Premier Place for Punks to drink on the cheap.
Good music, good dancing, good people, go. Drink. Dance. Go up to the DJ table and ask about the CD, which has some great tracks on it. Just don’t sit at the far end of the bar near the wall-mounted gas heater, because you’ll either catch fire, desiccate completely and end up looking like one of those Peruvian mummies, or just melt into your component parts of the 6 dollars worth of chemicals we all are without water. DJs Juddy and Soccer John probably won’t be signing body parts, but who knows? It can’t hurt to ask, ladies.
Saturday, February 10
Arctic Fun, You Know, For Kids! , 11:00 a.m. (and all day), Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Oakland
All manner of family-friendly activities going on up at the Carnegie today. Everything’s free to Museum visitors, too, so, y’know, good ’cause we love the cheap here at Git Aht, although to be honest, we love the cheap when it also involves the booze, but we can’t have the everything, can we? No, we can’t because where would we put it?
The guided tours start at 11 am, the kids can make polar bear puppets starting at noon, and you can even touch a caribou’s fur and antlers. One would hope that the Caribou is still involved with them, but ok, I can see how that might be a problem logistically, so I’m thinking that they’ll be detached from their original owner. It looks like they’ll have a live Snowy Owl though, so if you resemble a field mouse, you may want to avoid that demonstration. Just sayin’.
Loretta Lynn , 5:30 p.m., Pepsi Roadhouse, Burgettstown
Loretta is country, her whole life. The coal miner’s daughter, she married at age 14, had four kids by the time she was 17, and became a grandmother at age 29. She stood by her man even though he regularly cheated on her, and once left her while she was giving birth. It’s like, what else could you possibly heap on there?
And now, she gets to play the dinner show at the Pepsi Roadhouse in Burgettstown. Seems like a bit of a letdown, really, but the show should be good.
Sunday, February 11
Stomp , 3:00 & 7:00 p.m., Benedum Center, Dahntahn
Everybody knows about this, right? I don’t need to get into what Stomp is, what they do, how they do it?
Good. Personally, I’d go to the 3 o’clock show so I’m home to see the Police open up the Grammy awards. I haven’t watched the Grammys (Grammies?) in years, and I probably won’t watch these ones either beyond the first 10 minutes or so. Rumors are rampant that they’ll be doing a full reunion tour this year to mark the 30th (30th!) anniversary of the release of “Roxanne”. The old folks among us are hopeful that it’ll happen, and that if/when it does, they’ll make a stop here.
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Because Knowing Where To Go (and drink) Is Half The Battle
(Further Suggested Reading)
– Pittsburgh City Paper
– Pittsburgh Post Gazette
– Craigs List
– Pittsburgh Dish
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Got an event planned? Would you like a whole flock of yinzers with disposable income to show up? Let Git Aht know by sending the electronic mail to gitaht@gmail.com.
Marc Rettig (pictured) is this months feature photographer and this show wraps up the involvement with Club Havana. No word yet on where it’ll be moving to, but as long as they keep it at a bar, I’ll be happy. And drunk.
Local Witches, Druids, Wiccans, Shamans, and the like get together and whoop it up at the Pagan Potluck. This is a chance to get to know your local pagan, and also lets the local covens network a bit. They want you to bring a dish, and sweet Lord, (I know, yeah) I hope someone makes a Stonehenge out of marzipan.
Local music for a cause. It’s at Borders, so it can’t get the “Drinking for a Cause” label, but so be it, it’s still a good idea. Bring some non-perishable food items and enjoy the fun and live music from three great local bands with plenty of time to get home to watch the commercials that go on in between plays. Seriously, the Super Bowl’s kind of a pain in the ass anymore, because it takes so friggin’ long to watch the game. Ok, so ‘Em Stillerz aren’t in it this year, which my hypertension is thankful for, but still… I can’t even relax to watch the game because of the interminable commercials and half time show. Sure, it’s Prince, I love Prince, but do you think we’re gonna get a rollicking version of “Darling Nikki”? ‘Cos I don’t. Here’s hoping the assless chaps make an appearance, if only for the absurdity of it, and the controversy it’d cause.
Given the weather, the main thing here (among all of the galleries featuring great work and live music) is the Hot Chocolate and marshmallows that will be available free in the lobby of the Cabaret Theater in Theater Square. The marshmallows are shaped like snowmen, so this is your chance to at least symbolically exact revenge on Winter by biting the heads off first, pretending you’re a giant monster from a 50s Japanese sci-fi flick. Make some sort of “grarrrr!” sound to show the staff at the Cabaret Theater that you mean business, and are not one to be trifled with. This will help you to get that second mug of cocoa much quicker. Git Aht Tipâ„¢: Slipping some butterscotch schnapps into hot chocolate makes it a lot better, especially in the mid-term.
They’re kind of a big deal, I think. They get a lot of national notice, they’re homegrown, and even at a known rock joint that has a friggin’ skatepark attached to it, they’re standing room only tonight. Me, I dunno… I like my country music to be old school, about drinkin’, and heartbreak, and drinkin’. Preferably sung by someone who has lived through drug addiction, maybe a heart attack or two, a divorce, and rampant bouts of alcoholism. That’s country music, pardnah. Somebody help me out here – do the PNH do this kind of thing?
You’ll pay for the whole seat, but you’ll only need the edge! Well, ok, probably not, I mean, the back part of your ass’ll get numb after about 20 minutes, and you’ll wanna lean back with your Coors Light, take a load off so to speak. Go and see motorcycles flying through the air, going sideways, flipping around, and healing the sick.
Pictured, Dresta Kill, the Captain of my favorite team (based solely on team name), 
The Carnegie’s got an exhibit of Rembrandt prints running now through February 11th, all etchings spanning three decades that will show the evolution of his style. Works included are Self-Portrait Leaning on a Stone Sill, (1639); The Three Trees (1643), and my personal favorite which truly shows the incredible depth of his work, Christ Crucified Between Two Thieves (The Three Crosses) While Dogs Play Poker In The Foreground, 4th state (c. 1660).
They’ve also got an installation piece by Jonathon Borofsky, the same guy that has the “Walking To The Clouds” piece up on the CMU campus. It’s called “Human Structures” and it’s meant to be walked around and through. Well, not literally through because that would reduce it’s value, but you know what I mean. All in all, it sounds like a pleasant way to spend a Winter afternoon.
Heat up the cold winter night by packing your ass into the Eagle with 100 or so of your closest, soul-loving friends. Drinks are cheap, the music’s great, the dancing’s even better, and there ain’t no cover (yes, i now it’s a double negative, which I guess could mean that there is a cover, but you need to stop being so literal and have some fun for a change, fer chrissakes…)
“Refreshments”. We all know what that means, don’t we? Although, the concept of refreshment is one of those means different things to different people things, so your particular refreshment might not be available. For instance, I think a pint of Martini is fantastic for a summer’s day, although it can make for a truly horrendous summer’s night.
You’d think a taste of Ireland would involve whatever it is they do to the Blarney Stone at night after the tourists leave, but no. In this case, it’s all about the beer. Well, for me it is. Guinness all night, live music, and a stunning lack of potatoes. Consider this a warm-up for St. Patrick’s Day… Training camp, if you will. And you will, let’s not kid ourselves.