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Anxiety

“Closed Off” (c)Lawrence A Capozzolo

Walls thought imploded,
closing in again.

Clocks ticking,
racing towards tan.

Life ending,
constantly starting again.

Knowing too much,
a brain fills too quick.

Raining towards the bay,
my thoughts cannot stay.

Working around a following spy,
i ask myself why.

I cannot lose this constantly collapsing box.

-Lawrence Capozzolo

Bridge To A Lost City

“Lost City” (c)Lawrence A Capozzolo

Speeding for life,
trying to escape the urban skew.

The city once was,
a central heartbeat of all.

But after catching a great ball,
it let it slip causing a great fall.

The resulting mess,
caused all to digress.

Screaming across the last and only route,
leaving family behind with other roots.

Never looking back,
that bridge – the longest mile filled with asphalt black.

Keeping lifetimes of memories,
decisions to be avoided at best.

Wondering what would happen,
with all the rest.

-SWB

Wiener World (A Pittsburgh Icon)

“Hot Dog King” (c)Lawrence A Capozzolo

No … this is not a blog posting on a less than family friendly movie.

Get you head out of the gutter.

No, really – stop thinking that!!!! It’s REALLY embarassing.

To the food …

Wiener World is probably one of the last established long time food icons left in the city that almost brings visions of a New York scene in an episode of Seinfeld. We did try the soup guy thing, but that didn’t stick.

I guess hot dogs are easier —- everyone loves a hot dog. I mean, what’s better than something that contains 2% of stuff that should never be in your daily intake. Just kidding.

WW has been around in the city ever since I can remember – sort of like S.W. Randall Toys and Gifts. It’s one of those things that’s never not been there. It’s also one of those things you easily forget to visit occasionally.

Don’t miss out on this one …. it’s a treat.

Tradition, taste, and hot stuff on a bun … perfect!

Our rating … we skip on this one. You just can’t rate tradition. Kudos to Wiener World for keeping it alive.

-SWB

PS – don’t forget the chili.

A Beer’s Lament

“IC Shadow” (c)Lawrence A Capozzolo

A beer’s lament,
a passion unkept.

Smoke up a tube,
mash boiling in June,

A tongue tied in a bun,
tasting no longer fun.

A beer’s lament,
a passion toyed.

Shadowed from light,
it seems no longer right.

-SWB … celebrating bad poetry n brews.

Memories Unbroken

“Beehive SouthSide” (c)Lawrence A Capozzolo

Clear in my mind,
words spoken enter the light.

Smells of fresh flakes of coffee,
grab the sounds romping in my mind,

The colors around,
from life being poured by the pound.

Many a state of mind,
created in the midst.

Memories that bind,
enduringly enrapt in my mind.

-SWB

Giving it some gas

“The Pump” (c)Lawrence A Capozzolo

… actually more like filling up the tank.

BTW … this is a keyhain camera (Vivitar Digital Mini Camera) pic of the Citgo in Sewickley, PA – which I believe may possibly be the very last full service station in the country. I think we need to get it put on the national list of historic sites (and immediately after install a row of Tesla charging stations next to the gas pumps just to see the confused looks).

… so, getting on with it.

Since SWB is sort of revived (actually it’s becoming more of the defunct Confused Words poetry blog than Confused Words was … although I think someone took over that blog name on WordPress), we are going to try to revive a unique photo blog we started specifically for Art All Nigh in 2010 (if I remember correctly) – Pittsburgh By Mini Cam. The photo blog was specifically for images taken with those Digital Mini Cameras found in most Pharmacy stores for about $10 each. You know, the little cameras with imagers worse than a 1990s $5 web camera? Yep … those little things on the end of a keychain that make you wonder if you accidentally ate a handful of magic mushrooms after looking at the images.

Those cameras, albeit with their horrible images, are just plain fun …. because you have no idea what you took until you download them …. sort of like using a GoPro with really really really (x50 here) bad quality.

Many equate them to the cheap plastic cameras of the 50s and 60s or the discount single use cameras of the 80s. They take crap, but it’s just plain fun.

Anywayz … watch the site Pittsburgh By Mini Cam for new entries.

The first image series kicking the site back off will be from Sewickley and War Memorial Park near Pittsburgh PA.

-SWB

 

Woohooooo! The flowers are back!

Golly gee, I’m excited!

Because of flowers?!?!?!?

Well, sort of … not all flowers, I guess.

A special kind of flower – but rare? No.

Does it have odd colors? A Unique design?? Nope.

What’s so special?

It’s most popular in Spring in PA.

Well ….. what???

Official PA State Flower

Yeah …. that flower.

Welcome to Pennsylvania Spring and safety orange.

-SWB

…. as my dog would say – “grooooooaaannnn”

Art All Night 2018

Yep .. it’s back. It’s moved slightly over across the river, but it’s back …. and it needs volunteers.

Art All Night is something SWB has always supported when it can (although this year I can’t … my apologies ahead of time). If you want a perfect example of nondiscrimination under any guise, Art All Night is it. All art, all music, all styles are welcome – regardless of where it came from. It’s an awesome place to agree to disagree about the art, and still go out for pizza and beer afterwards (oh … wait, that’s during – I guess maybe wine afterwards, then?)

The point is this is a non-censored show (yes, all kids are welcome … but parents do have to be aware and have common sense [control what your kids see, but please don’t teach them discrimination while doing it]).

If you really want to see the available creative talent in Pittsburgh – this is the place to go. Currently the dates are April 28th/29th. Volunteers are always needed, to please Click Here to get to their website if you want to do so, or just want to get info on the event.

Although I’ll miss the Lawrenceville aspect of Art All Night …… SouthSide could use its presence – so please continue to support it outside of L’Ville.

Support Local by supporting your fellow artists.

-SWB

Stupidity Persists – the liberty bridge burning

Image (c) pittsburgh.cbslocal.com … see article: http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/photo-galleries/2016/09/02/smoke-rises-over-city-during-tarp-fire-on-liberty-bridge/

N’uff for the credits (we thank CBS for posting the pics and article), now for our bit:

Most of us that have giving ideas to SWB or written the rant, smack, and whining we put into words in this blog have also worked many years with events and other goings on in Pittsburgh (city and surrounding) and we’ve dealt with the safety harassment of the city’s demands on fire retardant ratings for anything during those events.

Basically that means when something started burning it has to stop after so many seconds or minute (I don’t remember all the direct specs).

BTW …. by harassment, I mean having your event shut down or delayed … having artists break their tents down until they can get a fire retardant tent or you can provide one, etc, etc.

Which makes SWB ask the question —– how did this even happen???

IF the city pushed and harassed those bridge contractors as they do the common folk running events within the city limits, that fire should have put itself out minutes after it started with NO damage or safety threats to anyone.

In other words, this should have never happened ….. but as we can see the same tarps are the ones still covering the work areas on the bridge – lovely.

It’s great the contractor or paying $200k plus per day along with the damages to the bridge on top of that … but it’s not like the people that are actually inconvenienced are getting free gas or wear and tear money from the contractor – but I’m sure if those same inconvenienced people decide to work at or host an event in Pittsburgh they will confronted with the fire retardant safety demands of the city … unlike the contractors working on it’s critical infrastructure.

So … the first SWB Clueless award goes to both the Liberty Bridge contractors along with the city itself (sorry, it was too much of a tie to give either one total credit for that level of stupidity considering many lives could have actually been lost).

-SWB

Switching Positions – Crazy Mocha

Alrighty, then ….. for all those loving to jump to conclusions, this article isn’t about making lifestyle choices or anything of the such.

Sorry to disappoint y’all … so ya can jump back from whatever conclusion you landed on (or skip reading this post and pop in your “Office Space” VHS tape .. which will probably be more entertaining).

Anywayz (we’re adding “z’s” to then end of lots of words to appeal more the Millennial generation) :-),

The pic is the view of the new Crazy Mocha store in Sewickley, PA. Now, for a SWB article, does this have a point at all?

Yep.

The blog, when it was on Apple’s web hosting site (yeeeeaaaarrrrs ago) was started with it’s first post in April of 2006 and the posts for years after being written at the Crazy Mocha in Southside when the company had a few stores to speak of. At least two other national blogs and twenty to thirty long time running local blogs were started that year in that Crazy Mocha location.

Now, the newest gem of the store chain – the relocated site in Sewickley PA site has opened for it’s first day with the chain now having way over 30 stores in multiple states (not bad for a local Pittsburgh company, right?)

In honor of Crazy Mocha providing such a beautiful new store, SWB thought it might be a good time to re-kick Screaming Weasel (not to mention with some inspiration from the latest literal bridge burning of the Liberty Bridge).

Check out the new store if you get a chance – even if you don’t live in the area … it is well worth the stop in to another location to celebrate and support a local company.

If you can’t get out to Sewickley – stop at another Crazy Mocha and tell them you saw the post!

-SW

Pirates …. best losers around

I realize I’m complaining just like everyone else, but it would be nice to see a winning season, before I die.

But, then again … if you are going to do something, do your best, no matter what it is {{groan}} even losing ….

I  can see the headlines now – “20 great seasons – the best losers in town”.  Not that the team did massively bad this year, but the last time I was able to not watch a game simply because I KNEW the were going to win was in the 70’s and early 80’s.  Baseball games no longer give me that “happy fuzzy” feeling they used to when I was a kid.

Guys …. you have a slim chance remaining …… give us something little this year.

Remember, we gave you that nice new shiny ballpark – let’s get a few more flags for it before we have to build a new one.

-SWB

… {{swish}} missed the ball again ………

A Senseless Day

What is a senseless day to SWB?

Today.

The sun is out.  The air is cool. Everyone seems happy. The only real irritating news is of the 10th street bypass having construction near it soon, and that’s not really even irritating because we are so used to it. There is nothing to whine or rant about today.  that really sucks for this blog.

The only thing we can rant about is not being able to rant.

We’re even too used to potholes to care about that much anymore.

The politicians are all the same, so if we rant about one we automatically rant about the others in the same exact way, which nullifies any of our rant enough for anyone to actually really give a crap about it.

The rivers are flowing good, so we can’t even complain about stagnant water, or dead and decaying fish.

……… HELP US HERE!!!!!

-SWB (a frustrated weasel on a too nice of a day)

 

New Blog – Confused Words

Screaming Weasel would like to invite you to check out a new blog by one of our former listing author’s.  Please Click Here or on the image to read on ….

The Wine Bistro Theory

The Wine Bistro Theory – intro

Welcome to The Wine Bistro Theory interview series.

SP is going to be doing an interview with a couple that started The Naked Grape in Sewickley.  One reason we chose them was because of their willingness to do this project with us and access.  Another reason was the area. The other reason was to show a small business becoming successful in an area that tends to be more discerning of their establishments.  Click Here to read article.