More Hobbies

I spent Thanksgiving break in Phoenix/Tempe, Arizona with my cousin Aykut and his family. While over there, Aykut gave me his old Canon SLR camera. And it's a film camera! That's right, the kind that you can't see the pictures immediately after taking them..you have to get them DEVELOPED! And this thing isn't just any old 35mm film camera..it's got enough features and gadgetry to keep me entertained for quite a while.

So be on the lookout, maybe I'll eventually put some photography up on this blog. I will be sticking to black & white for now, and will probably be focusing on daytime urban shots.

Why Pittsburgh is Awesome: Part 1

If you have ever talked to me for more than 5 minutes, you know how much I love Pittsburgh and Southwestern PA. I'm going to start a mini-series on this blog called Why Pittsburgh is Awesome so all of you, my loyal readers, can get a feel for how great Pittsburgh truly is.

Creativity

Pittsburgh creates creative, progressive-minded people, just by the very nature of the city. Pittsburghers knew that after the steel industry collapsed, they would have to get resourceful and be able to adapt to ever-changing conditions. They have embraced the arts, technology, sustainability, and education like no other city in the country, and now other people in other cities wonder about how they can make theirs like Pittsburgh. People look at the out-migration of young Pittsburghers as a bad thing, but so many people in my generation will gain valuable experience in other parts of the country and world, then bring all of that back with them to Western PA in the future.

Example of creative Pittsburghers doing what they do best: I just heard about a restaurant in the East Liberty neighborhood of Pittsburgh called Conflict Kitchen.

This take-out only restaurant only serves food from countries that the US is in conflict with. Each country is represented for four months at a time, and right now they are serving Iranian food and going by the name "Kubideh Kitchen". From the website:

"Kubideh Kitchen is an Iranian take-out restaurant that serves kubideh in freshly baked barbari bread with onion, mint, and basil. Developed in collaboration with members of the Pittsburgh Iranian community, the sandwich is packaged in a custom-designed wrapper that includes interviews with Iranians both in Pittsburgh and Iran on subjects ranging from Iranian food and poetry to the current political turmoil."

Vans Vault

I recently found out about Vans Vault, which is a limited edition seasonal run of shoes by Vans. The Spectator LX are some of my favorites, but they're incredibly hard to find. They're classy but still casual enough to wear every day as sneakers. Definitely a winner.

Zombie Infestation

AMC just came out with a new show called "The Walking Dead" that's based on zombies taking over the city of Atlanta. I've watched the first couple episodes, and it's pretty neat being able to pick out different streets and landmarks all over the city and imagine them being full of rotting, disgusting zombies. The plotline is actually pretty captivating so far, and in true zombie movie fashion, the series is somehow walking the line between disgustingly frightening and hilarious.

Rap City, USA

This song called Atlanta, GA has been stuck in my head all day, and I got to thinking about all the rappers/producers/hip hop artists/whatever you want to call them from Atlanta. It really seems like a new one shows up on the map every day. No matter how great or terrible some of their music may be, it's pretty impressive that so many big time rappers come out of Atlanta. Here's all the ones I can think of, just off the top of my head

Shawty Lo
Gucci Mane
Young Jeezy
B.o.B
TI
Lil Scrappy
Ludacris
Andre 3000
Big Boi
Yung Joc
Cee Lo Green
Jermaine Dupri
Youngbloodz
Ying Yang Twins
Usher
Goodie Mob
Soulja Boy

Baseball in October?

Something entirely new and unknown to me has happened in past week of my life. For as long as I've been following baseball, no team that I have even remotely cared about has made it to the post season. Growing up in Pittsburgh, I was used to baseball season ending in the middle of August, right around when the Pirates were getting ready to clinch their so-and-so consecutive losing season and the Godly Steelers were starting training camp.

But now, the Atlanta Braves are in the playoffs. There's baseball going on in October. Baseball is supposed to end in the summer. I'm going through a massive sporting paradigm shift, and I don't know if I can handle it. Go Bravos!

Asheville

What a great city for weird people like myself and my friends. The city is surrounded on all sides by the blue ridge mountains, and downtown is small, hilly, and really lively. I went last Thanksgiving and it was way too cold to really explore the city, but this time was perfect. Lots of funky little art galleries, bookstores, and restaurants. It is definitely a hippie city, but it's in the south!


We ate at a really great vegetarian restaurant called Rosetta's Kitchen (get the tempeh reuben, it's magical), and drank local beer at the Thirsty Monk. If you haven't been, then GO!

I think one of the southeast's greatest strengths is its small cities. There are so many really interesting and beautiful ones: Asheville, Greenville SC, Savannah, Chattanooga, Chapel Hill, etc. All of these towns take the things that I love about the big cities (namely ATL) that are too spread out to be really accessible, and smush them down into a more compact version.