Day 97 (August 7): Pittsburgh, PA.

Pittsburgh surprised me. It is a far more urbane, cultural city than I ever would have imagined. It is also quite pretty, both from a natural (the three rivers intersecting and an escarpment to the east overlooking the city) and man-made (lovely turn of the 20th Century art deco steel bridges crossing the Allegheny River) standpoint.

Highlights of what turned out to be a full day:

- I had seen some advertising for The Mattress Factory and figured it was either a mattress shop or a mattress museum. (I wonder what a mattress museum would look like.) A kind soul who overheard I was visiting from out of town corrected my misconception: it is a contemporary art gallery.  He heartily recommended I take the time to visit it and he was right. Located in a former mattress factory (it all seems obvious now, doesn't it?), the MF (hee hee!) combines permanent exhibits with spaces where local artists can work and produce what becomes the gallery's temporary exhibits. Only the permanent exhibits were open on this day, including three very interesting installations by James Turrell, who uses light and shadow to challenge visual perceptions of environments.

- Andy Warhol was born and raised (and is buried for that matter) in Pittsburgh, which I did not know, as it is fairly strange to associate him with any other urban environment than Manhattan and explains why the Andy Warhol Museum is in Pittsburgh.  The museum provides an in-depth view of his career, covering both his film and video work from the 60's and 70's and his art (Brillo boxes, silk screens and the like), even featuring some of his advertising work from the 50's. I spent two hours here; I could have spent much more. There is a room where the body of his television work is shown (from cable access series in NYC to a brief program he hosted on MTV just prior to his death). I barely had time to browse through and am betting that viewing some of those would have been worthwhile.  There are also two floors for temporary exhibits of contemporary art, which were nowhere near as interesting. After having a great experience at the MF, walking through an entire floor devoted to the work of 'Breyer P'Orridge' swung me back to thinking that most of what is deemed contemporary art is just a big joke perpetrated by the artist on the audience.

- I also visited the National Aviary, in Allegheny Commons; it seems completely random that there would be a bird zoo, and quite a good one at that, in Pittsburgh.

- I stayed at a great B&B, the Parador Inn on Western Avenue, a large 140-year-old mansion which the owner has decorated to evoke the Caribbean. My room (the Oleander Room) was close to being as large as my entire apartment.  It is walking distance to the attractions listed above, PNC Park and downtown Pittsburgh. When I go back to Pittsburgh, I will definitely stay there again.