Pittsburgher

Mary Beth and I set off Friday shortly after I got home from work. The drive was alright. I was running on a few days of very little sleep, but I managed. Not much incident on the way up. Had to use my phone for music as my mp3 player did that thing it did before where it randomly died and wouldn't turn on again. Then, packing it along just in case, it fell under the car seat and we couldn't find it. Weird. But my phone managed fine and the battery proved capable. We made it most of the way that night. We ended up stopping at a motel along the way in Ohio (past Columbus). It was fine or whatever until the next morning when I went to take a shower. The water fucking stank. It smelled like sulfur. So I had the pleasant experience of cleaning myself for a wedding in a stream of stinking water. Got dressed in my suit and drove the remaining two hours or so.

We made good time and arrived a little early, so we turned back to this populated area and Mary Beth got some tea. The wedding was pretty nice. The place was some kind of community center in an old church building. The wedding of two Rachels. Our first gay wedding. Technically, they were married in another state over the summer. It was a fun ceremony. The "other" Rachel (the one that's not Mary Beth's old friend) is deaf so there were a lot of deaf people there and a lot of signing. It was a pretty unique experience on a few levels. Pittsburgh apparently has this wedding tradition of the cookie table. Everyone who can bakes and brings cookies and so there's a wide variety spread out for the reception. They had a cookie table so it was pretty awesome. After the wedding we explored the nearby neighborhood a little bit and then met Mary Beth's parents at the hotel. It was pretty nice, fancy compared to what we're used to. I mean, not luxury level or anything, but we tend to slum it up. Hung out a little bit, changed out of our fancy clothes, and then Mary Beth and I headed back to the city for dinner. We stayed on the other side of the tunnel, so we got to drive through that many times this trip. Fun traffic, that. We had dinner at Piccolo Forno (a place we ate last time that Mary Beth couldn't get out of her head). Again, we had some tasty rabbit and boar pasta. Well, we had to wait for a table (a LONG wait). So we drove down a ways to a soda fountain called Klavon's and had some ice cream sodas that were awesome. Stopped at a bar that was apparently crappy and then got the call. Okay, and we ended downtown afterwards at a pub and such.

Sunday was the day mostly hanging out with Mary Beth's parents. We got together and drove to the strip and wandered around that for a bit as well as had some fish sandwiches for lunch. They wanted to go back to the hotel so we dropped 'em off and headed back to town. We went up to Polish Hill. There was a record store to check out, but it ended up being vinyl-only. I did, however, stumble across something worth picking up: The Sounds and Music of the RCA Electronic Music Synthesizer. A sampler of the famous synth (I think at least one side is classical interpretations) from BEFORE it was picked up by Columbia-Princeton. I guess an ad to get someone to buy it. Nice historical relic. Anyway, this was a nice little room in a multi-story thing and above it happened to be a place called Copacetic Comics, which Mary Beth wanted to check out. They had a bunch of books too and a pretty dern good selection. I picked up: Lies, Inc. by Philip K. Dick, The World Jones Made by Philip K. Dick, The Simulacra by Philip K. Dick, Flaubert and Madame Bovary by Francis Steegmuller, Confusion by Stefan Zweig, Inverted World by Christopher Priest, and Mordechai Schamz by Marc Cholodenko. The PKD and the NYRB (the next three) all had a big half-off sale so I struck it pretty nice there. Then we went around the corner to Mary Beth's favorite bar for a quick, dark drink. We picked her parents up and took 'em to dinner at a cajun place downtown on Market Square. Actually, this was pretty awesome. Parking anywhere downtown is a major fuckin' bitch. Well, I got like the best fucking parking space ever! I somehow managed to nab a spot right there on the square. Totally awesome. Oh, then the food was good too. My quail dish was just awesome. And then all their appetizers were incredible. Mary Beth had this catfish pate that ruled. Okay, back to the hotel, then Mary Beth and I went out again. I think we went back to that pub from the night before.

Okay, now it's Monday morning. We're seeing her parents off. Had a nice time with them. Now it's our day in the city. We have breakfast at Pamela's. This time we went to the one by the university. Walking back to the car, I notice something strange. What I could swear is the back of an original NES box in a store window. We go in and, yes, I was correct. It was some used game/music/movie place. They had a big display of all the Earthbound/Mother stuff you could want (all insanely expensive, of course, but fun to look at in person). Didn't get anything, but it was fun to look at the classic game shit they had. Next we went to the Phipps Conservatory and looked at plants and stuff. The desert room was really neat. After that we found Sound Cat Records, which was my primary goal. They had some good stuff. I picked up: Conrad Schnitzler + Wolf Sequenza: Consequenz, John Coltrane: Sun Ship: the Complete Session, Oneohtrix Point Never: R Plus Seven, Cecil Taylor: Seven Classic Albums, Squarepusher: Ultravisitor, Don Preston: Filters, Oscillators & Envelopes 1967-82, Conrad Schnitzler: Ballet Statique / Con, and Matt & Bubba Kadane: Music from the Film Hell House. I'm getting a little out of order, before the record store we tried this hotdog placed called Franktuary. It was pretty good. Anyway, back to after the record store. Mary Beth wanted to get some booze she couldn't get in town so we drove to the "premium" state-run liquor store way out in the northern suburbs. Then we drove all around and went back to the south side to Yo Rita for a drink and a taco. Then dinner at Primanti Bros. Ahhh, so good! I had it before, but this time the pastrami was much better than my knockwurst from before. Their schtick is they put fries on your sandwich. It was just greasy perfection (this time I didn't see anyone from Zombi walking by, though). Okay, now back to the hotel to bum around and be lazy and watch hbo and eventually eat our leftovers.

We got a pretty good start in the morning. We had breakfast at a place called Coca Cafe. I had cornbread waffles. It was nice driving with some damn sleep for once! We stopped for pizza in Wheeling, WV at a place called Di Carlo's at Devin's insistent recommendation. It's a unique style of pizza that (when you hear about it) sounds pretty crappy. The dough's more like a crispy break and they cook it and the sauce and then throw the cheeze and toppings on afterwards. The hot bottom layer does melt it, but according to Devin you have to eat it fast BEFORE it melts. It's kinda similar to shitty pizza you might find frozen or in a mall chain. Granted, making that kind of pizza good. I definitely wasn't wowed at first, but the more I ate it the more I grew to like it. Not my favorite pizza by any stretch, though. We got a whole square which lasted us the drive back. I thought it'd be fun to at least see a little bit of another city, so I'd looked up a record store in Cincinnati and we stopped in on our way back. Shake It Records. It was okay. They were your standard pretty-big indie store. Selection was okay, but not stellar. Nothing much struck my fancy here. I did pick up a copy of The Congos: Heart of the Congos. Anything else the rest of the drive? Not much I can think of. Made it back home last night and the cats were happy to see us. I had a package from Criterion waiting for me in the wake of their sale: Seconds, When Horror Came to Shochiku eclipse box, On the Waterfront, and Ministry of Fear. Had to crash pretty quick last night. Now it's morning and a day of complete freedom!