ONE:   On Sunday September 13, I sat for several hours at a table in WQED’s Studio A and signed DVD copies of several of my Pittsburgh programs that were on sale ($10 each, a really good price) as part of the WQED Flea Market event.  The Flea Market was Saturday and Sunday, but Saturday was the big day: lots of bargains, lots of people, lots of sales.  (The sale did NOT include copies of our PBS program called A Flea Market Documentary.)

Anyway, I was there Sunday from noon till about 4 or 4:30.   But early on, probably before 1 o’clock, two snazzy young people, hipsters you might say, came up to my table, and they just stood there coyly, smiling, for a moment till I realized they were wearing shirts with my picture on them.

The shirts said, “Sebak Is The New Black.”  a silly play on the fashion cliché about  ”Red Is The New Black” or “Green Is The New Black.”    I laughed.  This cool couple introduced themselves as Autumn Leigh and Ryan Hadbavny, and Ryan had designed the groovy graphics.  We took pictures and some of my WQED colleagues said they wanted to order one of the screened shirts.

I later became Facebook friends with Autumn and Ryan, and you can learn about the design & T-shirt company (and more) that Ryan is starting called “These Pistons Give Life.” Looks and sounds great.

TWO:  Several months ago, I was asked to be the master of ceremonies at the gala opening of the new Performing Arts Center at Seton Hill University in Greensburg, PA, and I said yes.   Back in 2007, I got to give the commencement speech there on campus, they presented me with an honorary degree (!) and so I was happy to come back and do something else to help my friends at Seton Hill.  (They had also put me on the cover of the Fall/Winter 2007 issue of their Forward magazine.)   Anyway, part of this new assignment was a pre-event visit to the new building to get me acquainted with the place before the craziness of the opening night party.    The Performing Arts Center is an impressive structure with a central auditorium, a smaller theater and lots of rehearsal and performance spaces for students of music, theater, and related fields.   It’s already nicknamed SHUPAC for Seton Hill University Performing Arts Center.

So on this prep day, Seton Hill mastermind and event planner Molly Robb Shimko and friends from the university took me out to lunch to talk about their expectations (and their secret plotting to have an unexpected appearance by Captain Jack Sparrow — or a reasonable facsimile — to surprise Seton Hill president Joanne Boyle.)  They told me that Joanne Boyle really liked the first Pirates Of The Caribbean movie a lot and had even quoted Johnny Depp’s line at the end of the movie about “Bring me that horizon” several times.   OK.   I was skeptical but I said I’d do whatever they wanted.   And I got a private tour of the building.

In the main auditorium, there are small brass plaques on the back of the seats, bought by various supporters of the university and this SHUPAC.  I was surprised when someone (maybe Molly?) told me that one of the plaques was in my name, a gift from the Class of 2007 because I gave their commencement speech. I was honored and delighted to be so remembered.  I took a picture with my iPhone.  It’s not great, but you get the idea.

(By the way, on Thursday, September 17, I think the gala opening ceremony went off beautifully.  The surprise visit of Captain Jack Sparrow worked perfectly.  Joanne Boyle hadn’t suspected anything, and when Nathan May, the Seton Hill student who played Johnny Depp/Captain Jack, mumbled and bumbled his way through a list of thank-you’s, I thought it was a great touch on a brilliant evening.)

And finally, honor number THREE:

If you saw my recent Pittsburgh History Series program called “Right Beside The River,” you may remember that the first three stories in the show were all in West Virginia, in the towns of Moundsville and Glen Dale.

We covered the ancient Grave Creek Mound, the Official Marx Toy Museum and the fascinating old farmhouse known as the Cockayne House, and all the people involved at those three locations were so nice and so appreciative of the attention that I feel bad we hadn’t wandered that way before now.  (That’s me above with Mound curator Scott Speedy.)

After the show aired, my shooting and editing teams and I were invited to a sort of thank-you party and special screening of the show in Grand Vue Park near Moundsville on Thursday night, August 27.   (Above is chief instigator and organizer Nila Chaddock, her daughter Leslie, me and Nila’s son Josh.)

The traffic and construction along I-70 made getting there an adventure, but it was a really great party, and we were knocked out again by the kindness and excitement shown by these West Virginians.  We got all sorts of wonderful gifts, including a generous check from the law firm of Gold, Khourey and Turak, our extraordinary hosts for this evening.  It would be hard to say enough thanks for all the appreciation shown by these neighbors of ours.  (That’s Jonathan Turak shaking my hand in the picture.)

But the most amazing part of the evening was when Francis and Jason Turner, father and son from the Marx Toy Museum, gave me the mint condition Flintstones Play Set that I had made such a fuss over when we shot there.  They had the Flinstones’ world all set up, concealed under a big cardboard box, and then the box was lifted and I was amazed.  Thrilled.  Touched.  I had one of these sets when I was a kid.

My Aunt Mary gave it to me for Christmas one year and I think the little Fred and Barney, Wilma and Betty and friends were scattered over the years, showing up in the boxes of other toys, games and such.   I mean it was just one of those things that gradually went away without a ceremony or a proper goodbye.

But seeing the whole set again was a revelation.  The plastic Bedrock mat, all the houses and stores and the little gas station, the characters, the cars, all these things were so familiar, so loved and so instantly MINE again.  They were things burned into my memory, my imagination, and it was comforting (?), reassuring maybe, just good to see them all again.  (This set was so perfectly preserved that it included the delicate green plastic TV antennas that went on top of all the plastic/stone houses.)

I think this honor from the Official Marx Toy Museum was one of the great gifts of my life.  I was amazed and honored and not worthy.  (In the picture below, there’s Jason and Francis Turner from the Official Marx Toy Museum, me, along with Tom Tarowsky and Nila Chaddock — who both work with the Cockayne House but helped coordinate all our work in West Virginia — all sitting behind the Flintstones layout.)

I set up the playset in the lower lobby of WQED for several days so everybody could see it.  Then to keep it safe, to preserve it, I put it all carefully back in the box.  Now I’m seriously thinking about donating it to the Marx Toy Museum so it has a shelf and a display worthy of its beauty and its power to transport goofballs like me who thought Fred and Barney and friends were nearly mythological characters.

Last night I ate too much.  I was one of the lucky judges at the 4th Annual Savor Pittsburgh evening on the South Side.   Big white tents in the parking lot next to McCormick & Schmick’s on Sidney Street.  They call it “A Celebration of Cuisine” and it was a pretty sublime evening of wonderful food.  Perfect weather.  Nice big crowd.  Live band.  All the proceeds benefit the American Respiratory Alliance of Western Pennsylvania.   It’s a good deed.  It’s talk talk talk.  Food food food.

We 13 judges got to sit like culinary apostles at a Last-Supper-like set of tables, and culinary students brought us samples of all the dishes in the competition.  Someone said there were 46 different dishes for us to taste!  I didn’t count.  

I missed the first few plates because I was socializing, and I missed all the desserts because I had to run home and help deal with a what-turned-out-to-be a minor family crisis. But just before I got the call saying I needed to get home, I had turned to Chris Fennimore, my fellow judge sitting next to me, and I said, “Hmm.  All of a sudden I’m very full.”  Maybe I got to leave at exactly the right moment, before that one thin mint led to disaster.

We started with appetizers.  Logically.  And oh they were impressive and memorable and startling and scrumptious at times.  Lots of seafood.  A rash of risottos.  I didn’t take a picture of every one, but I remember the bright taste of the Pennsylvania Silver Queen Corn in a risotto with some “Sautéed Laughing Bird Shrimp.”  Rice nice, shrimp tender, corn bright and sweet and a perfect starter.

Then there was one of the largest presentations of the evening, the classic oxymoron:  a HUGE shrimp, maybe he biggest shrimp I’ve ever eaten.  It was called “Dirty Shrimp with Sweet Potato Grits and avocado and Chili Oils.”  My oh my.  Spicy and luscious and served with style and color and panache.  Today I found out that this dish won the Best Appetizer category.  

But if you stopped to talk last night, I would have said, “Oh the Mussels Escabeche were amazing.”  Three perfectly cooked (or marinated or whatever) well seasoned mussels, served cool.  I think I remember a slice of radish or two, and wow! spicy Rice Krispies as a garnish.  With a dollop of citrus-y foam atop the whole presentation.  

I suspected it was a Kevin Sousa creation, and later when checking the program for the evening, I saw that this was one of his dishes, and I love the way he puts things together and makes my taste buds zing.   I will long remember the big shrimp but tonight I wish I had more of those mussels.

What else do I recall?  Some good green-vegetable gazpacho with a scallop seviche (“cooked” in lime juice, tender and smooth) partially immersed in it, sort of riding on a spoon in the cold soup.  Good dish for a summer night.  

I also like the Sweet Corn & Lobster Vol-au-vent.  The vol-au-vent is a squat flaky pastry tower that usually gets filled with something wonderful and this was a good one.

The scrumptious seafood ,just kept coming, and I’m not sure when the appetizers stopped and the main courses began, but when the student chefs starting bringing presentation platters as well as judges’ plates (usually smaller with a sample of the big plate), I figured we’d gone on to another course.   Here’s the presentation platter for 0ne restaurant’s seafood risotto:  

And below is what the judges got.  Not too shabby.  Perfectly cooked shrimp, scallops and other fruits of the sea.  Big points for whoever made this.   (I suspect it was from the Tuscan Inn when I look now at the program.)

I also really liked the seared scallops and asparagus salad that brightened the evening with a crisp sear on the scallop and a good blend of flavors.  I could eat more of those too.  (If I again read my program correctly, I think these were from Mitchell’s Fish Market.)   

It was a great evening of food.  I apologize for not pairing up all the dishes with their chefs, but last night, as a judge, I was just tasting great food without a knowledge of place or personality.  It was a celebration of good ingredients, careful prep, cooking and presentation, and I’m honored to have had the opportunity to eat like those judges on TOP CHEF and IRON CHEF and WHATEVER CHEF.  The food here was often world class.    

I give huge thanks to Christina Dickerson from McCormick & Schmick for inviting me again.  (I’ve been lucky enough to do this judging three times now.  Ahh.)  And a special thanks to my buddy Merritt Holland Spier from the American Respiratory Alliance who has been treating me like royalty even though we got back to my earliest days at WQED in 1987.  I remember meeting Merritt in a tiny dark editing room on the ground floor of WQED when I went there for my job interview.  So here’s a photo of Merritt and her husband Dave Spier and their fellow vote-counter, Cyndy Tallerico.   Merritt spent most of the evening gathering ballots and Dave and Cyndy were calculating the results.  I wish they had gotten a chance to eat more than they did.   

Wow.  It’s nearly a month since I wrote anything on this blog.  August has been a mighty, busy, tense and terrifying, occasionally satisfying and rewarding month.  31 days can be all of that I think.  There was no vacation or summer fun, but I finished the new show, RIGHT BESIDE THE RIVER, and the weather has been pretty amazing.  It’s not been a beastly hot summer, and I’m fine with that.

I’ve snapped many pictures to incorporate into posts, but there’s not been much time for getting things and thoughts onto this on-line diary.

In the last month or so, starting in late July actually, I’ve seen several rainbows.  Since the day in 1973 when I hitchhiked across Wales with Liz George, and we got a ride from a gentleman who kept driving us because we kept seeing rainbows — 6 if I remember correctly — I’ve always considered rainbows a positive sign.  Now with my camera and my iPhone I can try to capture some of their brilliance and hope they are omens of good times ahead.

Once you get in, up the escalators to the Convention Center main floors, it’s a beautiful and interesting building, certified green and all that, and having this event on the concourse under the glass ceiling is striking and beautiful, but I have to say:  this is not an easy or welcoming building.  It’s hard to figure out how you get in, where you get in, and there is little — if any — helpful signage.  If you don’t get a parking space in the building (as I didn’t at 5:55 when some guy was waving all cars past the parking entrance, pointing at the LEASES ONLY sign) then you have to park at least a block away.   When you get back to the center, it’s confusing.  Where’s the front door?  You enter through what-feels-like the basement, and I know, after many visits, I still often assume I just haven’t yet found the real way to get into the place.

Now I think it’s great that the G20 meeting is coming to town in September, but I shudder to think about foreigners trying to figure out the idiosyncrasies of this weird and unfriendly Convention Center.  Enough rant.

The food is what matters, and as usual, it was interesting, often delicious and plentiful.

In the photo to the left here, I think that’s pork tenderloin with ginger and scallions on the woman’s tray (very nice, from Willow, I believe) and the picture at the top of the blog was maybe smoked trout (from the Hyeholde?) if my memory serves me well.  I hope the restaurants get a lot of business from a sampler evening like this because they all put on a delicious good show.

This guy is Jesse Seagar from Point Brugge Café in Point Breeze, a great spot for mussels and fries and some of the world’s best beers.  He and his cohorts were handing out tasty little shrimp salads on swanky crackers.  

Can you ever get enough shrimp?  These little pink boys (above) were cooked and served inside a clever little envelope of eggplant.  All of them from Sesame Inn.  I’m impressed.

There are some restaurants that I know well, some I’ve been to a time or two, and others that I know nothing about, like the relatively new Dinette in East Liberty where these folks in the black aprons work.  He’s giving me the “You’re that guy who makes those programs” point, and she’s gonna faint because I’m her favorite Pittsburgh celebrity or something like that.  Their salad was good.  I want to check that place out.  I also tried the excellent crispy rice (above, with shrimp too, I believe) from Bangcock Balcony.  Pittsburgh food tastes especially good when you’ve got a sturdy old railroad bridge as a backdrop.  And it’s not just food, there’s drink too.  I stopped to get some Boyd & Blair vodka (made from potatoes just up the Allegheny and across the river in Glenshaw!)  Potent and Pittsburgh-y.  One of the guys who started this vodka company, a guy named Prentiss Orr, is in my show called STUFF THAT’S GONE, and he’s also behind the big book of Pittsburghers titled PITTSBURGH BORN PITTSBURGH BRED that was put together for the 250th anniversary of our town last year.

OK.  So, one of my favorite things at this event was the little Vietnamese sandwich called a banh mi (or here banh mai) with pork belly prepared by Kevin Sousa who’s getting ready to open a new restaurant in Garfield called Salt Of The Earth. 

Thanks to my foodie friend Paula (see Getting HOUSES Ready) who reads Kevin’s blog regularly, I’ve been to several of Sousa’s “secret” dinners at the site of his new place, and he’s cooked some wonderfully interesting and eclectic food there.   Many courses.  Served at long tables where you sit with people you may have never met before.  Good times.

Because those “secret” dinners are like family affairs, I know this smiling woman (above) is Kevin’s wife and the tall guy is one of his right-hand men.  Can’t wait for the new place to open.  (Kevin is assembling more banh mi, hidden behind his wife in the photo.)

One of the downsides of BEST RESTAURANTS is you end up standing most of the time, balancing drinks and little plates and assorted plastic silverware as best you can.  I took this guy’s picture because he had the fortitide to do all that with a sling on!  “You’ve been here before,” I said, “and knew you had to come with or without sling.”  “No,” he told me, “it’s my first time, but I’m loving it.”

There’s obviously a lively social scene at this food festival too, and lots of folks from WQED come out to attend this event.  The man with the impressive play-off beard (Go Pens!) is our CFO Steve Reubi.  He wanted me to take his picture.

And then I ran into screenwriter/professor/filmmaker/Pittsburgh-booster Carl Kurlander who I now know could play the young Bilbo Baggins.  I can’t remember what we were tasting there.  A soup?

Over Memorial Day weekend, I took my crew up to the Rachel Carson Homestead for their Sustainable Feast event, and we met and interviewed Trevett Hooper from Legume as he was handing out beautiful little plates of ricotta cheese topped with purply beets and lentils.   He’s being honored here at BEST RESTAURANTS (and in this month’s Pittsburgh magazine) as Chef Of The Year! His dish tonight is lamb rillettes on slices of baguette, and it’s excellent, flavorful and meaty, a great bite or two.

Also at that Rachel Carson event (which will be featured in our new program called RIGHT BESIDE THE RIVER) we interviewed Bill Fuller, the Executive Chef from Big Burrito, the group of local restaurants that includes Mad Mex, Kaya, Casbah, Umi and Eleven, among others.  He’s always bright and funny and opinionated.

I say he should have his own TV show.  His reaction to that?  “Hook me up.”  I was parched as I passed by the Mad Mex table and was glad that they still had a few margueritas to pass out.  (I think they made Bill a couple of special BIG ones.)

Not enough of the chefs had their toques on, but this lively lady who was handing out spoonfuls of roast ox tail (from the award-winning Toast, I think) didn’t leave her hat at home.  The ox-tail was good, but I wish it were spicier.  Zingier.

All evening long I kept seeing friends and familiar faces from Yum Wok (AKA Lulu’s Noodles), one of our regular lunch spots along Craig Street, not far from WQED.  All the Yum Wok folks wore these dramatic black t-shirts that had Lulu’s emblazoned on them, and everybody told me they were at the one end of the concourse, and I kept working my way that way, but by the time I got there, they were boxing up and getting ready to leave.  But David Chen and Ping and all the lovely waitresses agreed to pose for a picture or two with me (I’m happy to be in the way back.)

I will have to stop at Lulu’s soon for more Asian Greens with shrimp (made spicy spicy), my favorite thing there right now.

As the evening wound down, and restaurants started giving away the last of their samples, I met this crazy couple, Tom and Brandi Patterson, who brought a digital photo booth to the party tonight.  It’s a cool concept.  It’s a booth that folds up, but it’s like those old booths (think Penny Arcade at Kennywood or in a train station or maybe still in the basement of the Warhol) where you got 4 almost-instant-but-not-polaroid pictures on a strip.  But I think this “shutter booth” as they call it is all up-to-date and state-of-the-art and equipped with high-quality printer, and Brandi asked if I would get my picture taken with them.  Sure.  We quickly decided to do a progression of expressions from solemn to wild and crazy:  no smile, then slight smile, then big smile, then goofy!  It’s a very cool machine.  I think a fun way to get a photo souvenir of an event like this, and the bottom of the strip included the logo for the night.  Brilliant.

I haven’t mentioned how hot it got to be in the Convention Center concourse.   The setting sun through the glass warmed everything up, and I was carrying my blazer for most of the evening.

I was often thirsty.  And the drinks tended to be at the two ends (although the Mad Mex margueritas were about halfway along the concourse.)  At the eastern end of the hall, across from where Lulu’s had been, I stopped at the table with the interesting bright blue bottles.  It’s Bluecoat, a gin made in Philadelphia, and I liked it.   Like Boyd and Blair vodka (at the other end of the event) they proudly proclaim that they’re the first distillery in Pennsylvania since Prohibition. 

The woman who was extolling the virtues of the stuff was Meredith Maciolek, and she poured me a shot over ice.  Very nice.  She poured me a second one.  Better yet.  This could be my drink for the summer.  Martinis with Philadelphia gin.  Who’d a thunk it?  Discovering new stuff, new tastes, new ideas.  That’s why I love BEST RESTAURANTS.

Last Friday we learned that WQED has sold Pittsburgh Magazine, the traditional sponsor of this BEST RESTAURANTS event, and I’m not sure if or how WQED will be involved in coming years.  I’ll still want to be there.

I often like to paraphrase Vonnegut and a Bokononist tenet from Cat’s Cradle:  Unusual invitations are dancing lessons from God.

The event is at the beautifully restored visitors center at Schenley Park across from the Phipp’s Conservatory, not far from my office.

Even before I hang up on the invitation call, I mention to Ann that I might read Dylan Thomas’s “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” and another short poem by James Dickey because I remember when Mr. Dickey read them together in a class I took with him back in the 1980s.  (Yes, I took two semesters of poetry writing with James Dickey at the University of South Carolina as a grad student with no plans for a degree.  He lived in Columbia, South Carolina, and so did I, and it just seemed wise to take advantage of the poet’s presence.   I hadn’t read much of his poetry, but I’d loved his novel Deliverance, and I thought he was a great teacher:  energetic, opinionated, often loud, sometimes brooding, always inspiring.)

I think I’m 5 or 10 minutes late, but it’s OK.  The audience is just starting to gather in the beautiful little brick house.  There are smiling young women with trays of hors d’oeuvres.  There are old and new friends to talk to.

There are 5 readers:  a poet named Toi Derricotte who teaches at Pitt, Sally Wiggin who’s a TV news anchor at Channel 4, Marty McGuinn who used to be chairman and CEO of Mellon Financial, Franco Harris who’s the legendary Steeler who made that Immaculate Reception, and me.

The people who’d come to listen and help Autumn House were an impressive and attentive crowd.  I don’t think the SEEN people (from the PG) or the FANFARE folks  (from the Trib) were there , but if you read those weekly party reports and look at the photos regularly, you’d probably recognize a lot of the people at this event.

Ann Burham proves to be a delightful hostess, MC, and appreciative commentator.  She gets the readers rolling.

It was remarkably fast, fun and the poetry was a good mix, a salad of sounds and attitudes.  Toi kicked off the evening by singing a Billy Holiday song a capella (a cool and brave surprise), Marty read two short poems by William Butler Yeats (Marty’s second reading was my favorite of the entire event), then Franco read a Robert E. Hayden poem titled “Those Winter Sundays,”  I did my two (the Dylan Thomas and the James Dickey), and Sally capped the  program with The Tyger by William Blake.  It seemed a good amount of words, words, words.  Not too much, not too little.

Rick St. John (Executive Director) and Michael Simms (founder) from the Autumn House Press say a few words about what they’re trying to do and why they need help, especially financial help.

Then there was schmoozing, bright chatter, people snapping pictures on phones, and ah, another round of appetizers.   I’d do it again in a minute.  I’d go to hear five other readers too.

I took many of these pictures.  And I also got several from J.J. Bosley (who happens to be the treasurer for Autumn House too), but during the reading, when I went to perform my poems, Franco volunteered to take a photo or two of me with my camera.  The power and charm of celebrity are weird forces, but Franco taking my picture?  That would impress my dad.

Today I make some final corrections and tweak the copy on the “box” (really just a printed cover sheet) for the DVD case, and then it’s off to the printer.  Paula Zetter, video and graphic designer for WQED (and my foodie-friend), has updated the show’s old logo and look a bit by adding some classy wallpaper, and the new back cover includes critics’ comments and a partial list of extras that WQED editor (and friend but not-a-foodie) Kevin Conrad put together for this “Special Edition.”

HOUSES AROUND HERE has long been one of my favorites of all the productions I’ve worked on at WQED, and it’s great to know it’ll be available again.  The VHS has been out of print for two or three years now.      Paula has also taken the original drawing (it’s a colored-pencil illustration of a grand old house in Friendship) that we commissioned for the front of the old VHS box, and she’s made that circular medallion the design for the disc itself too.   It all looks great.

About 6:30, Matt Conrad, editor and computer wiz, stops by to borrow some music CDs, and he says Why don’t you come and have a hot dog with Bridget and me at D’s?  And I can’t think of a reason to say No.  So we meet at the hot dog shop in Regent Square, and the place is packed, as usual.  While we’re waiting for a table, Matt buys the first round of beers (!) and I show Bridget and him these old postage stamps that came on a letter to my mother the other day.   (One 3-cent stamp is from 1947, celebrating the Centenary of American postage stamps!  This stamp itself is now 62 years old.)   Then, when we finally get seated, Matt’s roommate Garrett Cooper stops by unexpectedly, and Matt notices Alina Keebler standing by the front door of D’s.  She’s one of the stars of HOUSES AROUND HERE, and taught me everything I know about Hulley Houses, the handsome old Pittsburgh houses built in the 1920s by a developer named E.B. Hulley.  I haven’t seen Alina in a long time and we hug and laugh, and I tell her the DVD is finally coming out soon.  Oh, she says, was that ten years ago that we did that?  Longer than that, I say.  Now I see it’s a full 15 years ago.  1994.

It’s still a decent and interesting show.  I watched the whole thing as I picked where the various chapters of the DVD would start.  Now the discs are being prepped, the print elements are being printed.  We won’t have the finished products for a couple of weeks yet, but I hope they’ll sell well.  Old TV shows (like old stamps) can still be good.