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Interesting post from Popdose that more or less precisely covers my high school years. I wouldn’t say that the majority of this stuff is good, per se (although some of it is) but it definitely has that “I haven’t heard that song in a long time, which may or may not be a good thing” quality about it.

This is someone who probably wasn’t listening to the top 40 station in town. You see, in those days, we had something called “AOR”, which stood for “album-oriented rock.” What that meant was dinosaur rock, surrounded by newer bands who sounded like dinosaur rock, with a sprinkling of just enough new and offbeat stuff to make it seem kind of cool, in a plaid shirt and Levi’s corduroys sort of way. The term stemmed from the fact that these stations “dug deep” and played songs off the album other than the hit single, although that usually meant they were just playing what would be released as the next single.

Maybe I’ll put together my own version one of these days. I have strong opinions on the subject of 1979, but my version might have some of the same stuff. Probably minus the Rainbow.

Downtown Pittsburgh from Troy Hill.

I thought San Francisco had left me too bitter to ever truly love another urban area again. But maybe not.

Pittsburgh really is sort of an amazing place, as I’ve mentioned before: urban without being pretentious, distinctly affordable, and possessed of a surprisingly stable population of working families. As I become more familiar with  the city, I find that there are very few neighborhoods that make me nervous as I drive through them (yes, there are still a few). And there really is some new little bit of wonderfulness around every corner. Of course, your definition of wonderfulness may vary.

And after a (very) few initial moments of skepticism, I’ve come to love my neighborhood, Lawrenceville, as well. It’s nice to be able to walk to the supermarket and pick up something I’m out of while cooking dinner, or to a really good diner for breakfast. And Lawrenceville has urban texture like almost no other place I’ve ever seen. It ranges from the beautiful to the butt-ugly, just like a real urban neighborhood should. And I think I would actually be a little surprised to find my car window broken here, unlike South of Market, where I sort of expected it.

In fact, it has been suggested that part of my problem with San Francisco stemmed from the neighborhood I lived in, and there may be some slight validity to that. That said, in San Francisco, mere mortals can’t just pick and choose their neighborhoods, either. Nor can they afford whole houses in them.

Anyway, I don’t live here full-time now, and it’s not really likely that I’ll be doing so anytime soon. I hope my fascination doesn’t wear off. I don’t think it will.

I have lots of thoughts and little attention span. Thus, here are some more pictures. Pictures are easy.

South Side.

Carson Street, South Side.

Strip District from Troy Hill.

Downtown Pittsburgh from South Side Slopes.

The free wifi in my hotel hasn’t worked since I arrived, and per my conversations with other guests, the problem is apparently specific to my computer. But I noticed an ethernet port under the desk, and scurried over to Wal-Mart and Best Buy in search of an ethernet cable. I was not, however, willing to shell out twenty bucks, be it Canadian or US funds. On a whim, I popped into a thrift store on Queen Street and found one for a dollar in a basket of miscellaneous and otherwise useless computer parts. I love thrift stores.

I love Toronto, too, but that’s another post entirely.

But why is it that fresh produce in the supermarket is the only thing that isn’t metric and is still sold by the pound?

For your amusement. The obligatory supermarket photos are here, by the way.