Hebe, the Greek goddess of youth and the cupbearer of Olympus, stands in the middle of a riotously colorful Victorian patchwork garden in Phipps Conservatory.
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Spring Flowers at Phipps
The Spring Flower Show is going on right now at Phipps Conservatory, and here are some of the stars.
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“Pittsburgh,” by E. M. Sidney
From Graham’s American Monthly Magazine of Literature and Art, Vol. XXX (1847), p. 249.
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Water over the Dam in North Park
Water tumbles down a dam in North Park. Damp weather left the lake full, and the return of snow and cold has not stopped the rushing waters. Below is a still picture of the same scene, for those who prefer their still pictures to be absolutely still.
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A Ride on the PRT in Morgantown
Just an hour and a half south of Pittsburgh is the city of Morgantown, just inside West Virginia. It’s the home of an enormous university whose two campuses, and the constant shuffling back and forth of thirty thousand students between them, created big-city gridlock problems until the unique PRT (for “Personal Rapid Transit”) began service in the middle 1970s.
PRT cars are about the size of a minivan. Each one has eight seats; there is no driver, because the system is entirely automatic. At the turnstile, you pay your 50¢ and push a button for your destination. A car rolls up shortly after that. You get in, and it goes straight where you want to go, with no intermediate stops.
This little movie will give you some idea of what a ride on the PRT is like. There is no sound; you may wish to hum a jaunty newsreel march to yourself as you watch. The movie is explicitly released into the public domain, so if you want to make a music video out of it, go right ahead.
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Heinz Hall Details
You need a sharp eye, and a long lens, to pick out some of the details on Heinz Hall from ground level. At first the exterior appears to be rather staid, but it rewards close examination with some charmingly whimsical decorations. (The white spots visible in these pictures are snowflakes.)
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Eye Benches at Katz Plaza
Katz Plaza in the theater district: a dusting of snow highlights the contours of these eye-shaped benches by Louise Bourgeois, who also designed the waterfall fountain in the background.
If you sit on a bench whose back looks like a giant eyeball, shouldn’t you be able to see behind you?
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Lobby of the Benedum Center
The lobby of the former Stanley theater, an opulent former movie palace that is still the largest theater downtown. This is yet another cell-phone photo, with too much glare and grain, but it gives us some idea of what the place looks like.
