Once again, we’re in my favorite week of the year: Pittsburgh Craft Beer Week!

There are special events all over the region, including a lot of special brews and tap takeovers.  Even if you think you don’t like beer, I promise you’ll be able to find a beer that you’ll like.

And, just like last year, the local craft brew community came together and created five special collaboration brews:

• D’Pomme Rye Saison – Rye Saison
• Fear of a Black Walnut – Smoked Black Wanut Oatmeal Stout
• Pennsyltucky UnCommon – PA Swankey/Kentucky Common
• Fakin the Funk – American Wild
• None More Black IPA – Belgian Black IPA

I went down to Rock Bottom to try the Fear of a Black Walnut, and it’s out of this world amazing.  I’m hoping to find all the others, but I’ll be hunting for the None More Black IPA.

There are also a couple other special beers out there from some craft brewing, and I have to recommend the Pittsburgh Left by Southern Tier.

Find out more, find a participating location and check out the myriad of events here.

Quantum Theater, once again, is pulling out all the stops.  And this time, it’s the world premier of “Dream of Autumn.”

What I’ve always liked about Quantum is how they use spaces in new and innovative ways, and especially how they use that mobility to support the local community.  ”Dreams” is being staged in the former Park Schenley Restaurant in the Royal York, and the reviews have been very good.

The show runs through the rest of the week, and if you have a chance, certainly check it out (and hopefully I can make it to the next show!)

Find out more here.

In 2015, the Professional Disc Golf Association’s world championships will be here in Pittsburgh:

July 25 – August 1, the tournament will be played at Deer Lakes, Knob Hill and Moraine (state) Parks, as well as Slippery Rock University.

I’m very bad at Disc Golf.  It’s fun, but I just don’t have much aim.  While playing Ultimate in college (as one does), I was much better at catching than throwing, not that I was that great, but I made a few good plays between classes.

Calvary Church in Shadyside has an e-waste recycling event on Saturday, January 19, 10 a.m. – 1 p.m.

You can no longer throw out electronics with the trash, so this is a great chance to get those pieces recycled at no cost.

Additionally, if you need a hard drive destroyed, they will have a service available for $10 each

You can find out more at Calvary’s website.

The Chief, returns for its 10th anniversary production for a short run at the Pittsburgh Public Theater.

And in conjunction, at a special show on Sunday, January 6 there will be a beer and food tasting after the show.

The show starts at 7 p.m. and the tasting will begin around 8:30.

I went to the last special event the PPT did with Good People, and it was a lot of fun, if you can make it, call the theater to reserve your tickets.

Find out more here.

Last week, Uniontown held an anti-equality parade.  The kicker: the  mental gymnastics they put themselves through to try to convince themselves that they’re the victims and that they really love everybody.

You can read the entire story here (although I think you can only read 10 articles a month from the Herald Standard before you have to pay), but I’m going to pull out a lot of quotes and respond directly to them below.

I”m also confused as to why now.  There is no real movement for marriage equality in Pennsylvania.  Maybe they’re just afraid because of the historic gains in Maryland, Maine, Washington and Minnesota.

The parade was put on by a church, and I would just remind everyone that not all church’s are anti-equality (the Episcopal church has a ceremony for same-sex couples joining together in matrimony).  Read that aside again.  Notice how I used the word ‘church’ and ‘matrimony.’  Marriage is a civil contract, and the definition has changed quite a bit over the years (see the graphic to the left), not to mention what the Bible itself lists as acceptable (or sometimes forced) marriages.

It’s a bit long, so I’ll put it after the jump, please take a minute and have a read.  I swear a bit.  But we’re talking about civil rights here.  I’m surprised I didn’t swear more.

(more…)

It was posted elsewhere, but I wanted to make sure to pay tribute to Adam Paul Causgrove, the newly crowned “Mustached American of the Year”

Congratulations, Adam!

Read more at ManMade

The Brew Gentlemen have teamed up with Tapped, the pop-up beer garden, for the season finale:

The Brew Gentlemen have also teased some upcoming promo materials which will be part of their Kickstarter campaign.

Sadly, I’ll be out of town that weekend, or else I’d head out to Braddock, but I hope it s a great event!

I was part of the Zombie Horde at yesterday’s Run For Your Lives.  I’ll have a recap up with some pictures and videos later this week.  So if anyone was a fellow Horde member, ran the race or came out to spectate, I’d love to hear your stories!

Mayor Ravenstahl joined the Freedom To Marry’s Mayor program.  While I think it’s weird that it took him this long to join on, maybe he was specifically waiting for Pride weekend.

And on a side note, while I like the logo for this year, the wings in the background of the logo, just look funny to me.  Maybe it’s because I was always seeing the banners through the dirty windows on a PAT bus (or covered by an ad wrapper), but they looked funky.

Here is Luke’s comment to WATE:

“Hearts change, minds change,” Ravenstahl told Channel 4 Action News on Tuesday. “I have had numerous discussions with members of my staff who are gay, with friends who are gay, and as I said, hearts change, minds change, and mine has changed.”

Good for the Mayor, and happy Pride to everyone downtown this weekend, have fun, be safe and enjoy yourself!