(Things to do while packing the truck for North Carolina…) Friday, December 29 First Friday Art Walk, 6:00 p.m., Ellsworth Avenue, Shadyside The Ellsworth crawl features Gallerie Chiz and their opening of “A Trip … Gilt without Guilt,” a big group show with dozens of artists working in various media. There’s also the Bella Arte gallery up there, a bunch of bars and restaurants, and the cupcake shop that gave my friend and I free cupcakes at 12:30 a.m. last Friday night as we were just walking by on the way to the car. (“CoCo’s” I think. I don’t recall… Read the rest

(Things to do while preparing your ball for it’s big night…) Friday, December 1 Exposure: Pittsburgh, 7:00 p.m., Cub Havana, Shadyside The monthly photography show opening run by the Pittsburgh chapter of photo-sharing web site flickr shows us the work of local amateur photographer and professional social worker Todd Hrcywoin Hrwkowian Mellencamp Hryckowian. Even though he’s got a last name like line 6 of an eye chart, Todd’s work is a treat, he finds things that some of us may never even get the chance to see. His job sometimes takes him into parts of town that… Hmmm… Well, parts… Read the rest