Pittsburgh blowing up on the big screen!

First Zack & Miri Make a Porno, then My Bloody Valentine and now Adventureland.  I feel like my hometown is becoming famous!!

Now, I won't kid myself, I realize one of the main reasons movies have been filmed in Pittsburgh lately is probably because it's significantly cheaper than filming in New York, but still... there's no better city to deserve some on-screen action.

I just saw Adventureland today, and the more I think about it, the more I realize I liked it.  Set in 1987, the movie follows a nerdy post-grad kid that comes home to Pittsburgh for the summer and is stuck working at Adventureland, the local amusement park.  It reminded me of an 80's version of Almost Famous or Dazed & Confused.  The movie was funny, especially when Bill Hader and Kristen Wiigs' characters chimed in, but the movie flowed with mostly an understated humor.  Ultimately, it's a sweet coming-of-age story about a kid that grows up more in one summer at a dead-end job than he did all four years at his respectable college.

The whole movie basically took place in Kennywood, the real Adventureland in Pittsburgh.  I loved pointing out all the rides and seeing the park on the big screen.  Although, just an FYI, the movie makes the park look really run down, but in reality, it's not run down at all.  Kennywood has been around forever, but the film purposely doesn't show any of the new additions to the park or the modern roller coasters there.  Fun Fact: I read that they decided to shoot at Kennywood instead of a list of other theme parks around the country because Kennywood isn't commercialized and they didn't have to cover up a bunch of advertisements and corporate sponsors for filming.

Growing up, Kennywood was the place to be seen.  Every school district in Pittsburgh is given a "Kennywood Day," a weekday where there is no school and you're able to purchase discounted tickets to spend the day at the park.  It was of utmost importance to look cute on Kennywood Day.  Ohhh the shopping trips I would take and the hours I would spend perfecting my outfit to make sure I looked good in case I ran into any boys from school. All the girls basically looked like little hoochie-mamas on Kennywood Day.  No dress-code policy there! haha

The characters felt very authentic and the film kept true to Pittsburgh-- the homes they showed looked like homes near my neighborhood and there were plenty of landscape shots that reminded me of home.  The house parties and aimless driving over tons of yellow bridges brought back memories of high school as well.  I also liked the random glimpses of Pittsburgh pride, like the guy playing the shooting gallery game with the Lambert jersey on.  (Zack & Miri was really good with that, too.)  Fun Fact #2: The directors for both Adventureland and Zack & Miri have personal ties to Pittsburgh.  Kevin Smith (Zack & Miri) had a girlfriend from Pittsburgh and always loved the city and told himself he'd like to film there someday and Greg Mottola (Adventureland) got his undergraduate degree from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

My advice-- go see it.  

Pittsburgh being in the movies isn't new, though.  Throughout the years, lots of popular movies have been filmed in my hometown.  Here are a few to jog your memory of the Steel City on the Silver Screen:

- Wonder Boys

- Dogma

- Inspector Gadget

- Milk Money

- Groundhog Day

- The Silence of the Lambs

- Flashdance

- The Deer Hunter

SIXBURGH!!

Well, it's been a week since the Pittsburgh Steelers' sixth Superbowl win in Tampa, and I am just beginning to come off of my high.  What a game... what a team... what an awesome way to make history and put the city of Pittsburgh on the map.

If yinz didn't know already, I grew up in Pittsburgh.  I've been living here in New York for a little over six years now, but my love for the Steelers hasn't faded, in fact, it's grown.  If you're ever sick of your hometown, I know the remedy.... move.  It's freeing to get to know a new city, and slowly, you begin to appreciate/miss the quirky trademarks of home and develop a newfound pride in where you came from.  You turn up the TV when the news mentions something about it, your ears perk up when you hear someone nearby talking about it, or in my case, you feel the need to become BFFs  and buy shots for anyone wearing a Steelers jersey in the bar...

When the Steelers made it to the Superbowl three years ago, I bought an inconvenient and slightly disastrous flight home (looking at an outdated schedule and taking the PATH to Newark Airport with only 45 minutes til takeoff to miss the flight at the gate by 5 minutes... and then sitting in the airport for 6 more hours with only a freaking $8 food voucher, grrrrrr), and when the Super Steelers made it once again this year, I knew there was no place I'd rather be.

It was a perfect weekend; the city truly comes alive when our Steelers do well.  I spent my Saturday afternoon in the Strip.  It's the spot to get your not-so-official Steelers gear from the street vendors and your breads, meats, cheeses and chocolate from the mom and pop delis and bakeries along the way.  A stop for lunch at the original Primanti's location with a line out the door and a group of crazed middle aged women decked out in Steeler gear doing cheers made the day complete.

On Sunday, I did not leave my house.  The whole day was spent preparing nervously for the game.  Many Iron City beers were consumed, the Superbowl spreads and dips were made and I changed three times into different Steeler shirts, unsure which was best to wear at game time.  I decided on my old Bettis jersey... lucky #36.  Worked for me in Superbowl XL and worked for me the past two playoff games.  Everyone in the whole city was wearing Steeler apparel, even the dogs.  With amazing foresight, I bought my german shepherds, Renner and Luna personalized Steeler doggie jerseys for Christmas.

What an awesome game.  From the moment of kickoff, my phone was buzzing with texts from literally everyone I knew in New York.  In the first 5 minutes of play, when we almost got our first touchdown, we thought we might have an easy game (ha).  When James Harrison intercepted the ball and ran it back 100 yards for a touchdown at the half time mark, we were amazed, elated and pumped to power through the next half.

Halftime... the Boss delivered a great show.  I'm loving this reversion to old school rock stars like last year's Tom Petty and now Bruce.  I may have been born forty-some years too late.

The third quarter began and was finished before we knew it.  Then came the fourth quarter and a severe blow to our confidence in the Steel Curtain.  Two touchdown passes from Kurt Warner to Larry Fitzgerald gave the Cardinals their first lead in the game by a mere three points, with only a little over two minutes left in the game.  My mom and I held hands, no joke, and the house went silent.  

We prayed for a miracle, and a miraculous play was exactly what we got.  Ben moved the ball down the field pass by pass to the 6 yard line.  After an incomplete pass to Santonio Holmes in the end zone, Ben threw again on second down to Santonio on the opposite side of the end zone.  It worked.  It worked!!  It was a heavenly catch, a magical catch by Holmes, toes dragging in the end zone, arms outstretched and grabbing the ball out of the air.  And that was it.  With 35 seconds left in the game, we ripped the Cardinals brief lead away from them and took home history.

I stayed in Pittsburgh til Wednesday so I wouldn't miss the victory parade.  What a show.  The city was packed by 9:30am, and we started drinking 16oz. IC Lights in Primanti's by 10.  The streets filled up so we took to the parking garage to get a bird's eye view.  Even the top level of the garage was filled with fans.  We watched each Chevy truck drive by and screamed and waved our Terrible Towels with everyone else.  We saw Jeff Reed (knowing him right away by his bleached mutton chops), James Harrison with the Vince Lombardi trophy and Santonio Holmes, proudly showing off his MVP trophy.  And, highlight of the day, we saw Troy Polamalu crowdsurf into the fans below us.  Too raw (sorry, that's my brother's phrase).  And in an interesting twist, he was wearing Uggs, hahaha.

I love, love my team.  I will become a New Yorker in very other way, and I will like the Giants and love the Yankees, but I will always love my Steelers more.  I have pride in Sixburgh. :)

Primanti's

I don't think you can talk about Pittsburgh without mentioning Primanti's (or the Steelers, for that matter, but it's not football season...just you wait).

Primanti Brothers is world famous (or at least we like to think that) for their greasy sandwiches, stacked high with your meat of choice, fries, tomatoes and cole slaw...yes, cole slaw.  We've never claimed to be culinary geniuses in Pittsburgh, but don't knock it 'til you try it.

My personal top choices for sandwiches are the Pitts-burgher Cheesesteak, Capicola & Cheese, Turkey & Cheese, Roast Beef & Cheese, and my Lenten favorite, the Deluxe Double Egg & Cheese. All range from $4.99 to $6.49.

When I was home last weekend, I went to the Primanti's in the Strip District at 2am post-bar...the real way to go.  The Primanti's in the Strip District (Read: not a community of strippers, but rather a strip of old school Italian and Polish grocers, butchers, Steelers pride shops, and restaurants amidst the old warehouse section of Pittsburgh) is the original location that has been in the area since the 1930's.  It's a gritty little restaurant with a lot of charm and later-added murals of Pittsburgh icons covering the walls.  It's open around the clock to accomodate truckers and workers in the area...and that also makes it a very convenient stop-over on the way back from the bars, haha.

There are a few other Primanti's outposts throughout the city, and vendors in the Pittsburgh stadiums, but then almost 10 years ago, they began expanding into suburbia with sit down restaurants and expanded menus.

Now it seems every time I go home, there are more Primanti's locations that have cropped up. There are currently 14 locations throughout Pittsburgh and 2 in Florida...Florida?!  It almost seems like Primanti's is on it's way to becoming the Dunkin Donuts or Starbucks of Pittsburgh, and I'm not sure how I feel about it.

Nothing beats the original.  Nothing beats being in the Strip District at whatever hour of day or night, and having the cranky man behind the counter fry you up a huge, greasy, falling apart with deliciousness sandwich...

No trip to Pittsburgh would be complete without a visit to the Primanti's on the Strip.  Yum.

Primanti Brothers - Strip District

46 18th St. (at Smallman St.)

Pittsburgh, PA 15222

412-263-2142

BODIES...The Exhibition

I held a brain this weekend, and a heart.

BODIES...The Exhibition is currently on view at the Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh, and it was my grandma's belated Christmas present for the whole fam to take her to see it.

It was very informative, and really interesting!  Besides medical and dental school students, who ever really gets to see the human body like this??  It really brought to life all those things I learned in high school anatomy class that went in one ear and right out the other (sorry Mr. Austin).

While waiting on line, my thoughts were all over the place.  I really didn't know what to expect; to tell you the truth, I was a little nervous to see real dead bodies dissected and up close. Would it creep me out or make me nauseous?  I don't take throw up well...maybe I wouldn't like this either.  But, I was very intrigued at the same time.  

As we first entered the exhibition, it felt like a cattle call.  There are a lot of Pittsburghers interested in the body I guess, and it was slow moving through the first few sections.  

The first room consisted of all the bones - pretty tame.  Most of these things I had seen before in museums or classrooms.  The tibia, the fibula, the skull, etc. There were some cool looking skeletons in fun athletic poses that I enjoyed, but other than that, I wasn't amazed yet.  

Then, the first astounding thing: a full human skin looking like shed snake skin laying in a glass box (Snow White style).  Creepyyy.  It looked...kinda like lightly tanned leather.

As we moved through the rooms, we moved through the different systems of the body.  I saw things I probably will never see again.  I saw muscles, what I work so hard for in the gym, up close and personal.  I saw adipose tissue (fat!), what I work so hard to not have any of, up close and personal.  (Sidenote: My thought when I looked at the "adipose tissue" body - It must suck to have your dead body on display as the example of what love handles look like.)

The exhibition was set up really well.  You saw each system and part dissected and on its own, and then you were shown that system within everything else in the body on a separate "model." It's truly amazing how everything fits together...there's so much stuff in there!

10 Thoughts and New Facts Learned at BODIES:

1. I don't ever want to have black lungs.  Don't smoke - black lungs are not attractive! (who cares if no one ever sees them...it's so unhealthy!)

2. The development of a fetus is such a wonder.  This section of the exhibit was hard to look at knowing that these little ones never made it.  Yet, it was so interesting to see how big they are at each stage and at what point they develop all their miniature organs, considering we only ever see how big the baby bump is from the outside.  

3. The stomach is not nearly as big as I assumed it was.  I should eat less.

4. The liver is huuuge.  I should drink more.

(kidding.  That's the Irish in me.)

5. Human muscles look kind of like meat.  I gave up meat for Lent, and this makes it significantly harder to go back to the good ol' rib roast now that Easter has passed.

6. The process of digestion to "elimination" should take from 10 hours to several days.  I'm glad I'm not in college anymore...those dining hall meals were clearly not being digested properly.

7. Females are born with all the eggs they will ever have.  Males keep producing sperm until they are old.  Now that's just not fair.

8. No matter how close I looked, I could not tell a difference between the healthy organs and the cancerous ones.  Good thing I never tried to go into any medical field.  I'll leave it to the professionals.

9. The kidneys are really tiny.  And to think kidney stones cause so much pain.

10. I still kind of giggled to myself when I saw the anus and the testes.  I might need to grow up a little.

BODIES...The Exhibition is on view in many places, not just Pittsburgh (we're not thattt cool). Check out www.bodiestheexhibition.com to see if it is on display in your area.  I highly suggest seeing it.