Yesterday, Video Games Live announced 45 new shows, including two in July to be held at Heinz Hall.  Video Games Live puts on a show will a full symphony orchestra, including pieces from Tetris, Mario, Halo, Myst, Zelda, Rainbow Six and many more.  The show features stage performers, video of the games , an interactive video game experience for a few lucky fans and a pre-show festival.

The show was supposed to come to Pittsburgh in 2006, but a good portion of the tour had to be cancelled, and they haven’t been here yet.

More information about VGL can be found here.

So I don’t have an iPod per se, I have a sansa mp3 player, but that is besides the point.  Point is that people might have new mp3 players that need to be filled with music now that we’re through the bulk of the holidays.  I recently posted over on my blog about the podcasts I’ve been listening to and finding, but I want some more suggestions, so read on and comment away.

So until Windows Media Player decides that podcasts are a good thing, I use iTunes for podcasts and podcasts only, but the iTunes store has some great listings.  Included in my subscriptions are two local podcasts: DVE’s Jim and Randy will talk to anyone, which includes the week in review from Carbolic Smoke Ball, and the Post-Gazette’s Tech Talk.

I have another local one, Should I Drink That, ready to go to see if I like it, but it hasn’t come around yet on shuffle.

The Post Gazette offers a whole bunch of podcasts, ranging from culture to sports and all kinds of other subjects, so definitly look them up in the iTunes store for some local listening.  And if you’re looking for more podcasts, check out the aforementioned iTunes store, of Podcast Alley.

Any good local (or non-local) ones that I missed but should listen to, let me know in the comments.

Even in the rain, the Flow Fest on Washington’s Landing today was a delight. Sponsored by PA CleanWays of Allegheny County, it’s a free art/music/eco festival celebrating Pittsburgh’s Rivers and it’s going on until 5:00 today. Great music, people to talk to, and hands-on art-making for all ages.

The Homegrown Hoo-ha is happening this weekend at the Post-Gazette Pavilion.

An all-day event, the concert will feature some of Pittsburgh’s best, including (my favorite) The Clarks, Rusted Root, Donnie Iris, and Good Brother Earl, among others.

I am always impressed by The Clarks’ live shows, and imagine that they will continue to exhibit their modest yet sensational performances this weekend. With two live sets and several other performances, it will be a considerable celebration of Pittsburgh’s most recognized musicians.

There’ll even be fireworks.

Tickets are on sale at Live Nation.

I know I’m getting older now that my first thought when I hear about an upcoming show is whether or not I’ll get to sit. It’s a sad fact of life, but ultimately I’ve made peace with my transition from an angry mosh-pit teen to a tired oldie who just wants a seat, and maybe a beer, during the show.

Needless to say, I’m quite excited about several shows this next month or so that feature some of my favorite female performers with the added bonus of chairs.

On July 2, Sarah Shannon comes to Club Cafe for the 7:00pm show. Formerly of Velocity Girl, Sarah’s solo albums are more lounge-singer than indie-rock, but I’ll be sure to catch this show since I never miss a chance to support my indie-idols of yesteryear (do you know how many times I’ve seen Juliana Hatfield?).

Later in the month, the Cultural District Live Series brings Neko Case (pictured above rocking a Penn State t-shirt) & Lucinda Williams to the Byham Theater.

Then, on August 1, Patti Smith performs at the Carnegie Library Music Hall of Homestead. According to the Tribune-Review, Pete Zorn also plays there on August 14. I’m assuming that this is actually referring to Pete Yorn and is also a sign that the Trib is actively searching for a sassy new entertainment reporter who actually knows the name of popular musicians (note to Trib: call me!).

This past Sunday was the last house concert of the season at Jim and Llouise Altes’. You probably know what a house concert is, a chance for musicians to play in a quiet, friendly, and attentive environment. All the proceeds go to the musician, and there’s usually a potluck afterwards. The handful of Pittsburgh house concert venues usually host acts from a five-hundred mile radius. So you get some of the best performers from places like Nashville, New York, and D.C.

On Sunday, though, it only took a short walk up the block to see a local, Jack Erdie, exhibit some of the best that is said, played, or sung. A native of Fairmont, West Virginia, Jack’s been in Pittsburgh for a number of years. Jack puts his characters through the paces, or should I say, a press — love and benevolence in the face of a cold world and self-destruction. He’s a musical scholar who doesn’t let his scholarship get in the way of enthusiasm. He can write and sing and pick and tell stories with the best of them. I know most of Jack’s songs, but he still surprised me, and sent me down a few paths I hadn’t been before.

Following Jack’s two sets, we filled our plates and some of us made it to the porch to talk about Albert Einstein (It’s not always about politics, justice, and labor struggles for us folkies.).

Perhaps it was Jack’s song “Speed of Darkness” that got people talking about Einstein.

Please help me, Einstein
I’m stuck on a time line
My space is caving in
The speed of darkness
Has outrun my carcass again

Or, maybe it was Walter Isaacson’s recent Einstein biography. Anyway, we talked about who Einstein was, what made him such an intriguing figure, and how physicists become pop stars. In addition, Jack did a great imitation of Stephen Hawking’s answering machine message. The personalities of physicists, though, can actually be a distraction from their constructions of the physical world.

So later that night, I was still thinking about Einstein’s thought experiment, the one where you’re rolling along on a light wave. I wanted to know more, so I googled “Einstein Thought Experiment.” The top ranked article was written by John Norton, Pitt professor, noted Einstein historian, and a former Friendship resident. He’s also a great writer and expositor. Like a patient uncle trying to impart life lessons, John’s always willing to discuss the history of science and quantum physics, even if he knows you aren’t getting it right there and then. You can tell that in this article, a concise and rigorous trip on a light wave. Because it contains a few words such as electrostatics and differential it might — just like a Jack Erdie song — take me a while to get it.

Through metaphysics and verse, through simple harmonies to discourses on the nature of light, from deviled eggs to Greek-style green beans, you might find the keys to the universe in one place. Maybe you won’t find everything on a Friendship porch, but I will say that I’m happy to live in the same town as Jack Erdie, John Norton, and Jim and Llouise Altes.

I missed the first Northern Soul all night party in Braddock. Really, I am getting a little old and tuckered out. Here’s a video about the passionate world of the Wigan Casino.

Tonight, free, CFA lawn: Spoon! Local fave Weird Paul is opening, and then Brooklyn’s Oakley Hall, then Spoon. You probably know that Spoon is from Austin, and their latest, Gimme Fiction, is great.

Show starts at 8pm. I’m not even going to tell you about the rain site, because it isn’t going to rain. Spring! Sun! Spoon! Hooray!

Spoon playing at Webster Hall in NYC by mysticchildz via Flickr.

Butler’s Lives of the Saints on Hildegard of Bingen:

Her letters are very full of these prophesies and warnings, and they soon made her notorious. On the one hand people of all kinds came from all parts to consult her; on the other she was denounced as a fraud, a sorceress, a demoniac. Though her meaning was often wrapped up in difficult symbolism, she always made it quite clear when she was reproving, which she most frequently found occasion to do. Henry, Archbishop of Mainz, wrote rather brusqely requiring St. Hildegard to allow one of her nuns, Richardis, to become abbess of another monastery. She replied: “All the reasons given for the promotion of this young woman are worthless before God. The spirit of this jealous God says: Weep and cry out, ye pastors, for you know not what you do, distributing sacred offices in your own interest and wasting them on perverse and godless men…. As for yourself, arise !– for your days are numbered.” He was in fact deposed and died soon after. To the bishop of Speyer she wrote that his deeds were so evil that his soul was scarcely alive, and she told the Emperor Conrad III to reform his life lest he have to blush for it.

This woman, who could say these types of things to powerful men in the twelfth century and die peacefully in bed at the age of eighty-two, wrote the music that inspired Rainbow Body, the first piece of music from yesterday’s PSO concert.
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(sketch from a previous visit)

The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra invites local bloggers to attend this Sunday afternoon’s concert and a post-concert blogging reception.

According to the Technology in the Arts blog:

The afternoon’s concert will include traditional works from Mahler and Beethoven as well as a new work, Rainbow Body by Christopher Theofanidis. The work’s title is derived from a Buddhist idea that when an enlightened being dies, his or her body doesn’t decay, but instead is absorbed back into the universe as energy and light. As a spectacular display of technology-enhanced art, the PSO will perform Rainbow Body along with projected images of dying stars taken by the Hubble Telescope.

Following the concert, the PSO will host a blogging reception, during which “blogging after the concert is strongly encouraged!”

I’ll be the one in the cheap seats with a sketchbook.