【57】Remember the Time @ Piccolo FoRNO Restaurant, Lawrenceville

Last weekend, I got a call from a Chinese friend who is leaving Pittsburgh for a job she landed in North Carolina.  We set to have lunch together in Lawrenceville this Thursday.

Lately I have been immersed into work, family issue and Michael Jackson world, and didn’t really reach out to friends as much as I would desired. So it is very nice to receive a call from a friend and know that I was thought of.

As we walked along the butler street, I was thinking where to take her. Then I remembered those many enjoyable lunches we had at +Piccolo Forno with Pittsburgh Cares folks. So off we went to the Italian restaurant. Couldn’t read the menu well because none of us speak Italian nor do we know much about Italian cuisine.  But nevertheless, we had good help from the wonderful waitress and ordered well. We devoured those delicious dishes, as we caught up with each other’s life and looked forward into the future. I am so very happy to know that all the Chinese graduates from +Heinz College, Carnegie Mellon University  this year landed employment in the country and they are all ready to sail for a bright future.

Sitting in the restaurant, I was thinking time really flies. In the same restaurant, Pittsburgh Cares saw off Ben to Google and Nina to a new post,  and welcomed Chris and Samira to join the staff.  My Americorps VISTA service year is getting to the end and I will embark on a new journey to next phase of life’s adventure.  My husband and I purchased our house, started a new life, and building our world together with care and love. I simply enjoyed friend's company occasionally, like Frank and Aimin, between work schedules and ended up knowing that regardless of what we can accomplish in this world, somehow we matter some to somebody one way or another……

As I get busier, I get less chance to look back. But I guess it is a good thing most of the time. Just keep going forward and occasionally look back. Remember the time and those occasions in which we allowed ourselves to be as open as we can. Then I find life is not that bad at all. But it is not easy either, quality happiness is always backed up by hard work.

ID@Lawrenceville

What’s the name of the new Theater opened in Lawrenceville? Is it true that this new theater mainly features those classic old movies?


P.S. Thank you +Aimin Zhang for thinking of me and making a point to visit before your departure. I wish you all the best in the new page of your journey.

I also want to thank +Michael Jackson for his inspiration and legacy.
"While they whispered and conspired
Through endless rumors to get him tired
to kill his wonder, trample him near
Burn his courage, fuel his fear
The child remained just simple, sincere"

We all have a magical child in us, it is difficult to keep it alive when everyday we deal with so many challenges. Nevertheless, we shall never cease to try. "Remember the time", I choose to be inspired by all the wonderful person I made acquaintance with on the Butler Street....The walk of surprise if you allow yourself to be open and strike a conversation, appreciate the beauty of a window display.

【56】A City’s Theater @ Pittsburgh Public Theater, Cultural District

Do you know that Pittsburgh owns one of the five largest Downtown Theater Districts in the U.S.? I didn’t know this until trying to write something interesting and worthwhile for this post. But I guess it doesn’t matter that much whether it is the largest or not, what matters is that it has good shows for people to enjoy, simply to have a good time.

Since finishing the intense graduate school, I have been to the Public Theater multiple times courtesy of my +GlobalPittsburgh membership benefits. One show I attended was TRUE WEST, through which two battling brothers tried to hunt for those good memories of the west, the originality, the disappearing social geographic culture, and a sense of self-existence. Really liked it. Matt was not able to attend. I tried to donate the ticket to somebody else. But by the time the show started the seat next to me was still empty and I knew the staff at the Theater didn’t have enough time to find anybody to use the ticket. I really wish I would have more time to give the spare ticket away to somebody on the street who might have had the time to stop by and enjoy such a show that can simply take you away, far, far away from the mundane world to an artistic being, even just for two hours.

Since I have moved out of the city and started to commute to work after graduation, attending evening events after work can be challenging sometime. So I found another way of enjoying the City, by sharing the opportunities with other people.

That is what exactly happened and I found great pleasure out of it. Tickets for another two shows (SONDHEIM COMPANY-A MUSICAL COMEDY & NOISES OFF)were shared with two young couples. One couple is a Computer Science major Chinese visiting scholar at Carnegie Mellon University and his wife, who is now hired by Idea Foundry working in Beijing to promote Pittsburgh and Pennsylvania; and the other couple is anAsian-American engineer and his Kosovo girlfriend, who is now pursuing her MBA at Duquesne University and has landed a full-time position at Ernst & Young.

I believe when happiness and experience are shared, they are amplified, then they have  bigger presences that are long-er-lasting. I wish our Theater District and our City can be"broken"into pieces that everybody can carry a piece that is meaningful to them away. Carrying the broken piece away by individual theater-goers (regulars or one-time goers) is actually the essence of making the theater district/city whole and vivid again.  I truly believe that.

Beer winning trivia @ Pittsburgh Public Theater, Cultural District

1. Pittsburgh Public Theater was founded by Joan Apt, Margaret Rieck and Ben Shaktman and chartered in 1974 and opened in September 1975. When Pittsburgh enjoyed its industrial prosperity before 1960s, it was once a major stop of Pre-Broadway circuit. When three major theaters started to close--Old Nixon, New Nixon, and Pittsburgh Playhouse, only smaller community, college, and university theaters were keeping the art form alive, Pittsburgh suffered for a decade, in which the city had become known nationally as an unenthusiastic theater town. The foundation of Pittsburgh Public Theater really saved the City’s culture stance in the nation.

The first home (1975-1999) of the Public Theater was the Hazlett Theater on the North Side. The theater was housed in the Carnegie Free Library and Music Hall, a historic Richardson Romanesque landmark that survived the razing of many of the North Side's most impressive buildings. Three successful inauguration shows in 1975 set up the Public Theater for a good start. The Glass Menagerie; One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest; and Twelfth Night.

The +Pittsburgh Public Theater moved to its current home: O’Reilly Theater, in the heart of Downtown Cultural District. O’Reilly Theater is one of the few U.S. theaters built from the ground up in the last decade. It is a $20 million project of The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, with world-renown architect Michael Graves served as its principal architect.  The opening show of the Public Theater at its new home was August Wilson’s King Hedley II in December 1999.

2. Cultural District is a fourteen-square block area bordered by the Allegheny River on the north, Tenth Street on the east, Stanwix Street on the west, and Liberty Avenue on the south.

The Cultural District features six theaters offering some 1,500 shows annually, as well as art galleries, restaurants, and retail shops. (This Wiki Page about Pittsburgh Cultural District is very Informative and FUN to read.)

ID@Cultural District

How many Theaters are there in this picture? and how many theaters in total in the district?