Tag Archives: Music

The Greatest Music Collection in the World – for sale!

Did you know that Pittsburgh is unofficially home to the largest collection of recorded music in the world? It’s true – but not for much longer. Paul Mawhinney, owner of Record-Rama Sound Archives, has been collecting records for about 60 years. His collection is comprised of over 3 million records and 3 hundred thousand compact discs, spanning many decades and genres. While operating the store in its original McKnight Road location and its more recent home in a former dance club in Pine, Mawhinney created a catalog of his collection and published Music Master, a guidebook for buying and selling used records. But now he’s looking to part with the relics that encompassed his life’s work for so long. For $3,000,000.00, it could all be yours, and to any audiophile with an awareness of the high price of rare vinyl and an appreciation for the preservation of the medium, that’s a small price tag for a priceless collection of history.
Here’s a link to the official website.
Here’s a link to the ebay auction

Closing Reception this Friday! 7pm – 10pm

Hello everyone,

Don’t miss the new art show at the Brew House this Friday, December 14th. Projects made by Pittsburghers in the Brew House Robot 250 workshop will be unveiled. Also on display will be work by members of the Rossum’s Robotic Art Collective and Doug Hill. The reception runs from 7pm to 10pm and is FREE and open to the public. Refreshments and music will also be provided.
-Tom

The Brew House Association
2100 Mary Street
Pittsburgh, PA 15203
Phone: 412-381-7767
www.brew-house.org

The Uncanny Valley Rally is an exhibition of work from the Rossum’s Robotic Art Collective. Participating Rossum’s artists include Jennifer Gooch, Joey Hays, Ian Ingram, Greg Satul, Tiffany Sum, Rexy Tseng, Gregory Witt, Derk Wolmuth and Garth Zeglin. Also participating in the show is Doug Hill, a self taught artist who makes complex mechanical sculptures out of cardboard and the participants of the Robot 250 Brew House Open Studio taught by Tom Sarver and Ian Ingram.

Robot 250 is an educational, research and celebratory project being developed to coincide with Pittsburgh’s 250th anniversary celebration. Student workshops, open studios for local artists and the curious, giant public robotic sculptural installations, tours, and exhibitions will highlight our region’s leadership position in robotics education, research, invention, manufacture and art.

Space 101 activities are free and open to the public. Exhibitions are made possible by the Small Arts Initiative of the Heinz Endowments, the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, an anonymous donor and
individual contributions. The BHA is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization.

Pittsburgh reps the 90s.

Thanks to a reader (Hi Rachel!) for just pointing out that Shanice, who hit the Billboard charts in the late-80s and early-90s with songs like “I Love Your Smile” and “Saving Forever For You” is from the ‘burgh. Fact, she is from Hays Manor, in McKees Rocks, PA. So forget H-Town for your early 90s R&B needs, we got SHANICE! She just came out with an album in 2006 … check it out!

Embed from Getty Images

This reminds me of another DIVA who grew up in the ‘burgh. Every few months I put the groovadelic very best of Deee-lite album in rotation. During its most recent pass-through my CD player, I found out that Lady Miss Kier was born in Youngstown, Ohio and then actually spent her childhood in Pittsburgh and Sewickley while her moms went to college here. But unfortunately:

“When she was nine, Kier designed her brownie outfit so that it would include brown bell-bottom pants. The troop rewarded her by kicking her out.”

Oh well. That’s okay because … (I can’t believe this), while doing this search, I found out that Snap! has Pittsburgh roots?! Huh? According to this site:

This Pittsburgh male/female dance duo had a huge international smash in 1990 with “The Power.” London-based rapper Turbo B and his cousin Jackie Harris teamed on “The Power,” with Harris’ curdling vocal elevating Turbo B’s pedestrian rap.

It’s true! Turbo-B was born in Pittsburgh, and was a session drummer for Maze and Chaka Chan; he toured with the Fat Boys. Thea Austin is also from here; she co-wrote some songs for Snap! is still busting out some wicked dance hits today.

I feel like I’ve been violated. How could I have lived my life not knowing that “Rhythm is a Dancer” or for God’s sakes – “I Got the Power!” – started with Pittsburgh angst? Let this code of silence now be broken!

So kids, what have we learned today? Pittsburgh + 90s = Represent. As Miss Kier would say, “Ooh la la, la la-la-la-la-la!”