In an effort to keep myself off the computer as much as possible during this layoff, and I am going to throw the next couple of entries out as fast as possible and go back to enjoying the relative luxury of my parent's house (ie: HBO, recliner couch, stocked fridge, available baking materials, etc).
PITTSBURGH! Two weeks in this city was plenty. I'm not saying it was boring or anything; quite the opposite: Pittsburgh had some of the most polar weather of our entire tour. One day, its boiling hot and sunnier than your wildest dream, and the next its teeming rain and humid with a horrible draft. My black Converse were soaked through TWICE in this city, and once I was attacked by a loose sidewalk brick and a whole lot of mud. (Seriously, I had to walk back to the hotel and change my socks.)
Anyway, our first few days were of the hot, sticky, sunny variety... which, of course, means some elegant photos on our way to the supermarket:
She looks pretty, don't she? All warm and inviting? She just kept slinging the punches of joy as we dined at Wingheart's Burgers and Whiskey joint:
A burger with pineapple and caramelized onion? Check.
Adding to the joy of opening night was a little present from my company manager, Miguel, fresh returned from his trip to see the London Olympics:
Anyone who's known me since college knows the effect of these cookies. Digestives are the perfect combination of crunchy biscuit, chewy caramel, and smooth chocolate. They are also only available overseas, and the caramel variety are exceptionally hard to find. I devoured them within the first week and I don't think I shared. I don't care.
Pittsburgh CLO also provided us with baskets of goodies for munching and crunching during our stay. I appreciated the attempt to keep it balanced with sweets and semi-healthy things:
Opening night marked another (rather sad) event: Our long-suffering, M&M toting, smile-wearing stage manager, Dan, left the company to start work on the SISTER ACT national tour. I was sad to see him go, but at least I know a couple girls on that tour who'll have the opportunity to enjoy him. Don't worry - he left us with enough bags of M&M's to get us through a fair part of the extension.
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Remember the great Eye Debacle of 2012? Well, the story continues: I had to throw out all of my makeup (both personal and show), which means I had to re-order everything in a big heap. Aside from one or two products available at Sephora, the bulk of my makeup comes from the one and only MAC Cosmetics. This company is no joke when it comes to price, so naturally I balked when I had to throw out each of my long-owned, hard-earned eyeshadows and liners. Luckily for me, I have a MAC Pro account because of my involvement in the show. Even luckier, Josh (hair/makeup supervisor) has a 40% discount when he orders through the show. He asked me to make him a list:
It pains me to tell you that although I saved a crapload of money ordering through Josh, a fair amount of my stuff had been discontinued. Namely, the eyeliner I use most. Epic fail. Still, I was able to recover most of the damage without breaking the bank thanks to my job and the glorious people I work with.
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Let's break from the Eye-Drama, shall we? DRAWSOMETHING!
I know, I know. Time on my hands.
Also awesome: DAISY EAGAN'S PESSIMISM!!
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Pittsburgh had a few pockets of awesome hidden throughout the city. Whether it be beautiful alleys with antique paint jobs:
Or fascinating modern art museums a mile from the hotel!
The Mattress Factory Museum was, I assume, a mattress factory in its previous life. Now its a series of levels filled with stunning works and perception-altering fixtures. On the fourth floor, a woman had created this:
She literally cut through the third and fourth floors to create a sky-view of a neighboring garden. Interesting concept... I find myself wondering if they got permission from the neighbors.
View from the third floor, with Ray:
I loved this bit: glass fixtures with books swimming through.
A Japanese artist created two mirrored rooms (which, apart from smelling like wet dog, were awesome):
Loving these spotted ladies:
Below is one of the more explicit works, "Its All About ME, Not You" by Greer Lankton, who died in 1996. The piece is an idealized recreation of her Chicago apartment - covered in dolls and figures created by the artist, religious culture, and evidence of her drug addiction. Lankton was born male, and became female at age 21, struggling with her life as an artist, transsexual, and morphine addict in between. The room is encased in a box, everything is seen through windows, so its hard to get a proper angle for photography. I tried to get a taste of some of the larger sections:
I thought this piece was quite beautiful, despite its desperate, in-your-face attitude.
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Level three was my favorite, and it was also the level that was impossible to photograph. James Turrell created three separate pieces centered on light and our perception of it. I'm going to copy the blurbs listed in the museum in an effort to better explain what I saw:
First installment: "Catso, Red (1967), 1994"
--In Catso, Red, the artist created what appears to be a red cube in the corner of the gallery by projecting a red square of light diagonally across the room. As viewers move closer, they see that the red light actually follows the contours of the walls. Turrell designed Catso, Red in 1967 as part of a series called Cross-Corner Projections, and installed the work at the Mattress Factory in 1994.
*** I really thought it was a cube on the wall when I walked in. This was the least thrilling of the three, but certainly the best way to acclimate to the pitch dark surroundings and get an idea for the artist's work.
Second: "Danae, 1983"
-- When the viewer enters Danae, the glowing purple rectangle at the far end of the room appears to be a solid form. Danae is the beginning of a series called Space Division Constructions, and alone with Pleiades, is the first permanent installation collected by the Mattress Factory.
*** LOVE LOVE LOVE this. When Ray and I walked in, we both thought out loud, "Okay. Its just a well-lit, bright purple painting hanging on a wall." Then we walked forward to see what might be lighting it from behind. That's when we realized there was nothing on the wall - it was, in fact, a rectangular hole in the wall showing a purple lit room beyond. I'm not lying when I say I started jumping and yelling. I don't know why I thought that was so cool. The farther back you walked, the more it morphed back into looking like a painting on the wall. Awesome.
Last: "Pleiades, 1983"
-- Pleiades is the first of Turrell's Dark Pieces, which he developed to explore the experience of vision at night, especially in relation to his Roden Crater project. In these works, Turrell is interested in creating a space in which the viewer experiences a blurring of the boundary between what is seen outside oneself and what is seen in the mind's eye.
*** Basically, this is a pitch dark room. I had no idea I was still such a scaredy-cat about darkness! They provided a map before entering showing that you'd walk in, make a left, and then sit in the two chairs provided. I made Ray go first, and I was a total baby walking in after. Once seated, we were to wait fifteen minutes for the piece to appear. Fifteen minutes later, we both started seeing dim, multi-colored lights whirling around the room. We stayed seated and quiet until curiosity got the best of us and I turned on the flashlight of my phone. There was NOTHING THERE. Just a big, empty room with no lights. Everything we'd seen had been produced by synapses in our brains. Super cool.
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The basement level was under some construction, but had a piece by Rolf Julius - an artist fascinated by sound and motion. Many of his pieces involve speakers pulsating sound and shifting sand.
Here's a clip of "Red, 1996" at work. If you look closely, you can see the dirt moving as the speaker plays extremely low vibrations:
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The Mattress Factory has two separate locations around the corner from each other. The first, which you've been looking at, is the permanent installments. The following is their ever-changing local installments.
On our way around the building, we passed a bunch of what looked like drainage pipes. Some were marked with little eyes, others with ears. Looking in, you'd see pictures, reflected images and such. The ear-marked ones were playing a mix of classical strains:
Entering the building, we were met with flying floorboards:
And words of wisdom on the walls:
More by Rolf Julius, the Scratcher. Quite literally, scratched the wall to draw your attention:
Upstairs, there was a room filled with dreams tied to balloons:
And a two-sided couch you could roll between rooms:
We also discovered the source of the classical music from the drain pipes outside - a room with sound umbrellas was connected at the top of the building:
There were a few more installments by other artists on the top floor. I was impressed by how much the Mattress Factory allowed artists to destroy in order to create:
We had a great time at the Mattress Factory Museum. I highly recommend it if you're ever in town.
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Did you know that Starbucks now makes a size larger than the Venti?
I don't know what its called, but it may lead to face masks and Wicked poses:
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On Monday, Roland and I rented a car and headed to Kennywood Amusement Park! One of the oldest parks in America, it has lots of fabulous roller coasters and plenty of family fun:
First ride we went on prepped us for the park... with press-on nails for all!
Our favorite ride of the day: the Exterminator!!
An underground, single-car roller coaster that spun on its axis through a maze of twists and turns! We were appropriately frightened:
But after surviving, we felt like gods! I even managed to forcibly press a fire hydrant into the earth!
Prying it back up was more of a problem.
Between rides, we dined at the Potato Patch (famous for having the best fries on the east coast - I wouldn't argue) and Roland had a hand-dipped ice cream cone around the corner:
These are a little blurry, but you can see that they are cutting the ice cream right there (and saving the scraps for floats):
Is that a work of art or what?!
Love the garbage men...
Gorgeous tattoo in front of me in line for one of the coasters:
A little shoestring treat for the ride home:
On our way home, we stopped at Trader Joe's to restock our fridges. I was thrilled to see that they had champagne grapes!
I was NOT thrilled to see a roach of this size in our hotel room. Free night? Yes, thank you.
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Then there was that time Peanut tied her hair in a bow. No, really.
I wish I could buy her this as a congratulatory present:
This sign was hanging outside one of the theatres in town. A little dated, sadly. Rest in peace.
On our way to the hotel, we were privy to fireworks from the baseball stadium:
Some of the buildings were setting them off as well:
The morning of our final day in Pittsburgh, Dougie took us all out for brunch as a meet and greet for the new cast members. How he got to be so generous, I'll never know. Patrick and I loved the water pitchers:
I was on for Lizzie all weekend, but I took time between shows for a little FaceTime with Stella!
Next up, ATLANTA! Let's go, let's go!!
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