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Pittsburgh
By Jack Silbert on May 10, 2018
My pal Brian Musikoff hosts a weekly show on radionope.com. Tonight I conducted a hostile takeover, playing an hour of artists that I associate with Pittsburgh. At this link you can see the playlist and stream or download the episode.
Posted in internet radio playlists, shameless self-promotion | Tagged Pittsburgh
By Jack Silbert on January 16, 2017
This weekend, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus announced that after 146 years, they’d be folding up the tents and coming to town no more. It was pretty shocking news to see. The circus just seemed like one of those forever things. But I guess forever ain’t what it used to be. When I […]
Posted in personal history | Tagged Gunther Gebel-Williams, New York, Oakland, P.T. Barnum, Pittsburgh, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus
By Jack Silbert on July 5, 2015
3 stars out of 5 For recent vintage coming-of-age movies set in Pittsburgh, Adventureland (2009) is—in my not-so-humble opinion—far and away the best. Coming in second: 2012’s The Perks of Being of a Wallflower. Taking the bronze from the Iron City? Me and Earl and the Dying Girl. In a nutshell, our teenage protagonist befriends […]
Posted in movie reviews | Tagged 00s movies, 10s movies, 80s movies, Pittsburgh
By Jack Silbert on July 16, 2014
I knew the other 2/3 of the Karl Hendricks Trio—but who exactly was Karl? Drummer Tom Hoffman was a great pal from English classes at CMU; bassist Tim Parker was a really nice guy who I knew from WRCT. But Karl… hmmm…. Sure, I had the 7″ from his band Sludgehammer. Yet I don’t think […]
Posted in personal history | Tagged Carnegie Mellon, Hoboken, Karl Hendricks Rock Band, Karl Hendricks Trio, Maxwell's, Pittsburgh, WRCT
By Jack Silbert on April 5, 2014
Kurt Cobain took his own life on April 5, 1994, but we didn’t learn the news until Friday, April 8. Can you imagine that today, three days passing? No distraught tweet from Courtney Love? No Instagram of the body from an assistant coroner, whose account is taken down the next day? It was bad enough […]
Posted in personal history | Tagged Hoboken, Kurt Cobain, New Jersey, New York, Nirvana, Pittsburgh, popular music, trains, unpopular music
By Jack Silbert on November 3, 2013
Maybe you’ve seen the name Frank B. on this site. Back in early 2008, Frank Boscoe invited me to become a contributor to Salt in Wound. Twenty years earlier, he was my music director at WRCT, the radio station of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Frank had a strong influence on my developing musical […]
Posted in personal history | Tagged #Poundsign#, Carnegie Mellon, Frank Boscoe, Jerry Fuchs, Leital Molad, meta, Pittsburgh, Rob Christiansen, Stephen Vesecky, The Gazetteers, unpopular music, Vehicle Flips, WFXIV, Wimp Factor 14, Wimp Factor Fourteen, WNYC, WRCT
By Jack Silbert on October 17, 2012
3.5 stars out of 5 This is a pretty good movie that maybe could’ve been a terrific movie with a little intervention and pruning. It’s based on some best-selling young-adult book that I never heard of. The screenplay was written by the author, and for good measure, he directed it too. Hey, look at me, […]
Posted in movie reviews | Tagged 10s movies, books, Emma Watson, Ezra Miller, Logan Lerman, Pittsburgh, Stephen Chbosky, The Perks of Being a Wallflower
By Jack Silbert on October 23, 2011
“[Random public figure] replied to my Tweet!” gushed an otherwise austere friend. Socioeconomic levels be damned—there’s a bit of starf*cker in us all. These days, the methods of choice seem to be: • the aforementioned realm of social media, and • if we actually encounter a celebrity in person, a photo—due to the fact that […]
Posted in brushes with fame, personal history | Tagged autographs, comedy, New Jersey, New York, Pittsburgh, popular music, public figures, public transportation, San Francisco, sports, unpopular music, Washington D.C.
By Jack Silbert on July 10, 2010
A friend, having returned from the hairdresser, told me, “You’re lucky you’re a boy. You can get your hair done in five minutes for five bucks.” True enough. But it’s not to say that a special bond can’t develop between a boy and his barber. The shop itself is a special world of masculinity, celebrated […]
Posted in personal history | Tagged barbers, Hoboken, New York, Pittsburgh, Princeton
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