Off-Q, Off for the Weekend

Nothing against Jim Roddey, or Dan-O for that matter -- but we think it's now clear that we of Allegheny County really missed an opportunity, when we passed over Wacky Uncle Cyril for the post of "Grand High Commissioner." Woah, momma.

On a related note, the Comet would like to apologize on behalf of the entire blurghosphere (save AntiRust) for not having mentioned the debacle at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center. We must have been navel-gazing in the wake of the C-P cover story.

Let the record show: this is bad. And will get worse.

We were not entirely alone in our inattention; we refer you to yesterday's "report card" of public officials in the Trib. Still fresh, still spot-on.

That's it. See you on Sunday.

Myron Cope Notwithstanding...

Another week has come and gone, and still no breakthrough on a new arena.

With each passing day, Mellon Arena grows more and more beautiful.

In the Hill District, as the sins of its construction recede into history, there is growing apprehension for the sins of its replacement.

We remember a troupe of Toronto Maple Leafs fanatics spilling out of a bar on Seventh Street, enjoying their third trip to Pittsburgh this year. They volunteered to us what an awesome city we had, and that we have the best remaining hockey venue on the continent. Of course, they were Canadians, and drunk, and therefore romantics. But still.

We ask again -- is there really no way to cram some superboxes in that thing? Open off the roof and build another level? How hard could it be? Use that same Barden money. Use that same Rendell money. Put the CMU architects on the case.

Take some time to think it over. One more year! One more year! One more year!

Charm Offensive on the North Side

Timothy McNulty of the P-G brings us news of the Charm Bracelet project, an effort "to connect destinations -- among them, the Children's Museum, Andy Warhol Museum, Carnegie Science Center, National Aviary, Mattress Factory, New Hazlett Theater, Allegheny Commons park and sports stadiums -- in a way that positions the North Side as the city's 'family district,' just as Downtown's theaters and galleries are grouped as the Cultural District."

At first we thought, greeaaaat ... a splashy PR initiative that hopes to reverse fifty years urban decay, by way of subsidizing a few technicolor art projects, promoting a few well-heeled interests, and deploying "Family Ambassadors" to coerce untouchables (which includes both panhandlers and singles) to relocate back over the river.

Parochial Comet naysaying was given pause, however, when we discovered the old game plan from the CMU Urban Laboratory, which included a lot of encouraging rhetoric about housing, mixed-use development, communication with existing neighborhood coalitions, and utilization of existing community assets.

We were especially encouraged that the "Housing as Catalyst" division of the Charm Bracelet was headed by architects Dan Rothschild and Ken Donyo -- the dynamic duo bold enough to foresee and publicize the advantages of PITG's North Shore casino proposal.

The plans will be unveiled (discussed?) at the Children's Museum on Tuesday the 13th. The Comet may actually do some original reporting. We are curious how much of the original mission was able to survive the input of our city's "knowledge workers."

Peduto the Prodigy?

Today at high noon, the C-P's Chris Potter promises a searchable online database of donors to the mayoral candidates. Huzzah!

(If assembling the software was the difficult part, may we humbly inquire whether similar databases might be forthcoming for city council candidates?)

Anyway, using previous data provided by the P-G, the Comet submits this theory for peer review: Bill Peduto's contributors are artsy!

Henry John Simonds: filmmaker. Charles Humphrey: makes filmmakers. Michael Berger: gallery owner. Susan Rothenberg: artist, we think, if it's the same Susan Rothenberg. Ellen Kaplan Goldstein: appears in the Scene section, at benefits (very suspicious). Burton Morris: the pop artist has made no financial donations yet, but is an old friend of Peduto, and seems to have made in-kind contributions in the past. Peduto enjoys significant financial support from more private individuals than Ravenstahl, and we wonder how many of these are connected to the arts world.

Of course, Ravenstahl has his developers, contractors, and financial institutions. We leave it to others to judge the lesser of evils.

The Comet has Arrived!

No, we're not talking about the Marty Levine C-P cover story about the blurghosphere. We are far more gratified to appear in the one political blog that Levine somehow snubbed: Delano's Den!

We tried to defend the honor of bloggery, but to little avail. The current KDKA poll shows 64% of respondents think blogs are "just a lot of hot air on the web," which is kind of embarrassing, since its an Internet poll!!!

Jon's new post actually opens an interesting subject: Is the media politically biased? He cops to three "institutional" biases: dramatization, personalization, and authority / incumbency. We would respectfully add a fourth: the bias against exposing patent nonsense, for fear of losing access, or alienating part of one's audience.

Jon defends the media for covering "both sides of the story." Yet how many times have we heard the report, "Smith tells us that the sky is blue, whereas Jones insists that the sky is plaid with blond highlights. Fascinating contrasts. We'll find out who's right in November!"

As to the Den, we are forced to holster our snark-gun, and admit this venture shows some potential. We offer a few suggestions:

1. More updates. If you don't show some new content a few times a week, people forget you exist.

2. Respond to your commenters. If you're lucky, you might find yourself in a flame-war, or even a bona-fide feud! The Comet would be happy to volunteer, you son of an English k'nigit.

3. Make your space appear at least a little different from the rest of KDKA's website. In the blurghosphere, it's always Casual Friday. Try adding a simple graphic novel!

In regards to the City Paper piece, we actually would like to register a quibble. We were clumsily paraphrased in one of the last paragraphs. The Comet detests the phrase "knowledge workers" -- we imagine it takes a lot more knowledge to operate a lathe, or install ceiling tile, than it does to design new packaging for Go-Gurt. In drawing distinctions between the candidates' bases of support, we do recall having uttered words like "wired," "progressive," "traditional," and possibly "yinzers." We are appreciative that the City Paper sacked Marty for his shoddy work.

Meditations on Barney

We got to thinking after our last seventy viewings of this NSFW-licious video, posted recently over in Junkietowne.

Like most white folks, the Comet is not entirely "at home" with the African-American community's double-standard in regards to the the n-word, which persists despite Jesse Jackson's recent hapless efforts.

Then again, we acknowledge that perhaps we don't have standing to complain, seeing as how throughout the last half-millennium -- um, yeah -- let's just say mistakes were made.

However. There is a long-standing tradition in the music industry of releasing two different tracks of albums: the original uncensored version; and the cleaned-up, radio-friendly, lame-ass version. Might we suggest third:

The white-friendly version. We would very much like to continue enjoying the full emotional impact of all the Motherfuckers and Fuck Your Bitches, to say nothing of the explicit drug-use references! All those phony lyrics, eerie silences, and cow bells on the clean tracks just don't get the job done.

All the same, we would prefer not to suffer a neurotic liberal aneurysm every time an artist drops the n-bomb. That word has become so integral, today's rappers are blithely rhyming n***** with n*****, time after time. You wonder how so many of them can boast of dope rhyming skills with a straight face!

This not a charity thing -- we'll buy it! And for you local artists out there, might we suggest that once you blow up, and can afford to put out multiple versions of your albums, the phrase "yinzer" is a respectable stand-in. Slur it down to "yizzah" and even preserve much of the flow. Give it some real thought.

Sparking Long Overdue Attention

"Out of control ... it's so outrageous." Sen. Jane Orie R-McCandless

"Unequivocally, I do not support the governor's plan. It's irresponsible." Rep. Mike Turzai, R-Bradford Woods

"The same old story from Gov. Rendell, higher taxes and higher spending" Rep. Daryl Metcalf, R-Cranberry

"There is a chart in my office that shows the word 'no' in 50 different languages, and we may have to use every variation before this budget process is over." Sen. Gib Armstrong, R-Lancaster Cnty

Finally, he must be thinking, that No Chart is reaping dividends! Hat tips for the Trib's Brad Bumsted and the P-G's Tom Barnes for all these, by the way. Anyway, you'd expect nothing less from the R's, but the D's are a pretty hard sell:

"The Governor's tax proposals give me great pause." Rep. Joshua Shapiro, D-Montgomery

"While legislators may not all agree on all the governor's solutions to all of the state's problems, his ideas will help spark long overdue bipartisan attention to issues we can no longer afford to ignore." Sen. Robert Mellow, D-Lackawana Cnty

TRANSLATION: the massive raft of tax increases is the opening bid in negotiations. This stays, that leaves, both sides go home to claim victory, we may actually get a bus or two.

ANALYSIS: We hate sounding like we just fell off the turnip truck, but we absolutely loathe when politicians spend a year in campaign mode, telling everybody who'll listen what they stand for -- and then weeks after their victory, they get all thunderstruck with inspiration, unveilling massive proposals that are (bad) news to everybody! We resented it with President Bush and Social Security, and we resent it with Governor Rendell and tax increases.

Lynn Swann was the political equivalent of Leaping Lanny Poffo; a charismatic punching bag we all knew never had a chance to take down the Macho Man. Why not campaign on your, you know, plans for the state, and go into this with a mandate?