Duquesne

“Doo-kane”, its pronounced “Doo-kaaaaane”.Pittsburgh, with its grey skies and steel girders, is perfectly gothic. Duquesne with its calligraphy script and Catholicism is perfectly matched.Sitting in a large ball room chatting with an undergrad he admitted that while ghrowing up in Pittsburgh, he had never been “up here”. He even admitted that none of his friends had ever been up here either. I raised my eyebrows and cocked my head as if surprised, opting not to tell him I had no idea where Duquesne was located till I booked my flight.I am finding a correlation between ivy on campus buildings and the game of lacrosse. Where I was raised we had niether. No…that isn’t true, there was lacrosse. It was played on back fields by a couple kids I never met. I only know this because I played rugby on the same fields. No one else knnew we had a rugby team. Right.

It is not like that everywhere.Duquesne is a great illustration of what is right and wrong in American higher education. Right in that it is a great school that produces great scholars.Wrong in that because it does not have a big time football program, no one, not even those in Pittsburgh, knows where it is.

Da Berg’

I knew they liked their teams but I did not expect the whole town to be painted yellow and black.  Not only did the buildings and bridges sport the team colors, but the locals as well.  Men in ties on their way to work sported Steelers beenies, woman shuffled to offices in pantsuits and Steelers parkas.  It was not only outer wear but inner investment.  I overheard a conversation between two 50 something women in an employee break room discussing the importance of diversified play calling to take pressure off of a quarterback.  I peeked into the room and despite my best efforts could not find the teleprompter they were reading from.

I walked over the Andy Warhol Bridge, turned right, and kept going till I hit the place where three rivers came together, and a fort once stood.  Fort Pitt was a focal point in the French and Indian War and the wilderness edge of colonial America.

What I found there was a concrete outline on the ground where the walls once stood, a plaque on the ground, and “closed for renovation” sign on the museum door that looked as if had been undisturbed for months.

I abandoned the old and historic for the Pop and modern.

Not only does the Andy Warhol Museum contain large and repetitive etchings of Elvis, but skinny jeans, round glasses, and a white wig worn by the weird one himself.  In addition to the permanent collection the museum was also showing Shepard Fairey’s  ” E Pluribus Venom” show, which includes his now iconic Obama Hope poster.

politics aside, it's a great graphic image.