Tag Archives: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

April 3rd – Intro to Fly Fishing

The weather forecast for this Saturday is sunshine and 78 degress – which is a nice change from the weather at the beginning of February.  So why not use this as an opportunity to learn to fly fish.  Venture Outdoors is offering an Intro to Fly Fishing workshop on Saturday, April 3, 2010.

Learn the basics of rods, reels, line, tippets, knots and flies, and receive hands-on practice in a variety of casting techniques. Of course, a fly-fishing experience wouldn’t be complete without time on the stream, so bring your waders! Instructed by Dale and Cyndi Kotowski, of Chestnut Ridge Trout Unlimited. Pennsylvania Fishing License requirements apply.

Location: Ohiopyle State Park
Difficulty: Easy
Time: 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM

Last weekend Venture Outdoors hosted a workshop on the European fly fishing technique nymphing and the Post-Gazette videographer joined them for the day.  Check out the write up from the Post-Gazette here and the video here.

Looking for more fishing info in Pittsburgh – check out http://fishpittsburgh.com/.

FREE Concert with Joan Jett, Kathy Mattea and More Events!

Repower America Rally & FREE Concert with Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, Grammy-award winning country

1979 album cover
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singer, Kathy Mattea; Big Head Todd and the Monsters, local rock favorites, Joe Grushecky & the Houserockers, and the Pittsburgh Gospel Choir.

I have heard great things about Joan Jett and I found the info for this on a link from her Twitter account (@joanjett)


Post-Gazette Article on the Upcoming Why Pittsburgh Party

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Building
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I wrote about the Why Pittsburgh Party on Friday and I wanted to post a follow up because I was worried that the info would get lost in the weekend emails.  The Post-Gazette beat me to it with a great article about the upcoming Why Pittsburgh Party on September 17, 2009 (click here for the party details).

Here are some highlights from the article:

Carrie Hagan, a graduate student in history and policy at Carnegie Mellon University, met Ms. Wilson through the League of Young Voters and joined the party committee “and the next thing I know I am throwing the party,” said Ms. Hagan. “I couldn’t stand the idea of not being part of something like this.”

…

The Detroit party was “a qualified success,” said Ms. Szurpicki. “We had around 100 people and collected over 80 good photos” of participants holding a white board with the phrase “I Will Stay If …” completed.

“The photos show that people want better regional cooperation, public transit, bike lanes, curbside recycling, things like that. And what has come out of this is people saying ‘I am staying to be a part of something,’ ‘I am staying because I want to help build that curbside recycling program.’

…

“I fell in love with this city the moment I crossed the bridge and have not looked back since,” she said. “I’ve been a lot of places and this is the kind of place I want to live.

via post-gazette.com
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Iron Chef of Lattes at the Regional Barista Competition

  * Description: Coffee cortado (An latte...Image via Wikipedia

Pittsburgh has been getting very serious about coffee in the past couple of years.  The coffee shops around the city are not only great places for coffee but have become hubs of different neighborhoods.  Some of the local coffee shops have come together to form PACA – Pittbsurgh Area Coffee Association.The PACA website is PittsburghCoffee.org, which includes a map of local coffee shops and a listing of coffee blogs.This weekend Pittsburgh will host the Mid-Atlantic & Northeast Regional Barista Competition.  This is kind of like the iron-chef of coffee making.  Baristas from 11 different states will be competiting for fame and prizes.  Check out some of the baristas from Tazzo D’oro who are experience competitors and bloggers.   The competition is free to attend.  They will be selling deserts to accompany the coffee – all proceeds benefit the Greater Pittsburgh Communty Food Bank.Friday, Satruday & Sunday, Feb. 6-8, 2009 11am-5pm daily (Complete Schedule here) @ Pittsburgh Marriot North in Cranberry More on the competition:  

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Donate Bikes and Mr. Kraynik will fix them for Kids

Kraynick's on Penn AveImage by lemonad via FlickrI have been fascinated by this bike shop ever since I read about this project last year in the Post-Gazette (click here to see the 2007 article). I wasn’t even sure that shop was still in business but ever since I read the article I keep seeing people wearing Kraynick’s Bike T-shirts (Where can I get one?).

Well Bike Pgh just posted an article from the Post-Gazette – the Bike Before Christmas project is back for another holiday season. This is a project that is coordinated by the City of Pittsburgh Police and Jerry Kraynick. This is the 4th year of the program – last year Mr. Kraynick with the help of some volunteers tuned up 230 bikes which were distributed to kids for Christmas.

You can help by donating bikes to:

Kraynick’s Bikes, 5300 Penn Ave or any of the City’s Police Stations

  • Zone 1, 1501 Brighton Road, North Side
  • Zone 2, 2000 Centre Ave., Hill District
  • Zone 3, 18th and Mary Streets,
  • South Side
  • Zone 4, 5858 Northumberland St., Squirrel Hill
  • Zone 5, Penn Circle West at Broad Street, East Liberty.

Check out this awesome panorama photo of the bike shop that the Post-Gazette put together. Here is a write up on the shop in Dirt Rag magazine.

I enjoyed reading more about this bike shop – here is what some other bloggers that wrote about Kraynick’s:

  • Maintain – compares a NYC shop to Kraynick’s
  • Breathing Dirt – Mr. Kraynick helped him build a bike to ride in the MS150
  • Null Space – Chris Briem cites this article as “What Makes Pittsburgh Pittsburgh”
  • SF Cyclotouring – “my all-time favorite shop in the whole wide world”
  • Everything Nathan – Mr. Kraynick helped build Nathan’s bike

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