Music in the Hill was a way of life until 'progress' silenced venues

TribLIVE: From the window of his Hill District home on Epiphany Street in the early 1950s, 7-year-old Sala Udin would bask in the warm summer breeze as he watched ladies adorned with gloves and hats and smartly dressed men in crisp suits and ties make their way down Fullerton Avenue and into the swanky Loendi Club.

Outside, shiny vehicles parked in tight rows lined the street as trolleys rattled their way down the tracks. As the club's double doors swung open, an irresistible melody would fill the air.

Months of hard work go into high school musicals

TribLIVE: A good high-school musical provides its audience with an entertaining evening of singing, dancing and storytelling. What the audience doesn't see is the nearly yearlong process of bringing that musical to the stage.

“Most people would be surprised by most of the work that goes on behind the scenes,” says Linda Comm, director of the spring musical at Hempfield Area High School. “If we're doing it right, they have no idea that it was that much effort.”

Pittsburgh Opera's 'Sumeida's Song' tells tale of family betrayal

TribLIVE: Exploring adventurous repertoire is the mission of Pittsburgh Opera's Second Stage Project. It complements the grand opera offerings at the Benedum Center by utilizing a smaller performing space.

It may have a hit on its hands with its next Second Stage production, which is set in a very different Egypt in time and social milieu than “Aida.” Its composer is 29 and has frequently been called one of the leading voices of his generation.

CLO's 'Boeing Boeing' flies high after rough takeoff

TribLIVE: Seven doors, four women and two Americans in Paris promise an infinite number of possibilities for comedy in “Boeing Boeing.”

The farce playing through April 26 at the CLO Cabaret, Downtown, takes us back to the swinging '60s when air travel was glamorous and being a flight attendant on an international route was a much sought-after career for women. Bernard, an American architect living in Paris, has figured out how to make the most of this golden moment in place and time.

L.A. Mayor to Launch ‘Greenlight Hollywood’ Campaign to Urge Studios to Shoot in State

Variety: Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti will launch a campaign on Saturday called “Greenlight Hollywood” to pitch the state’s expanded incentive program on studio chiefs and producers who give the go ahead to major projects.

Garcetti plans to make the announcement at a pre-Oscar Academy symposium on makeup and hairstyling.

Two A Day

Dimmer Beach: Main Goal of a Shop: Get Shows Out of the Door
There is no reason to have a shop if you aren’t doing gigs (Otherwise you just have gear sitting in… a shop.) It just makes sense. In the effort to get gigs out the door as quickly and efficiently as possible, there are other things that may suffer. One of the things that is easy to let slip is simply “stuff.”

High End Systems Announces Hog Factor Competition

Stage Directions: The Hog Factor is a national collegiate lighting programming competition from High End Systems. Teams of lighting designers from recognized colleges are asked to create a performance lighting piece on either an existing Hog desk or via Hog 4 PC. The grand prize includes a Hog 4 console (MSRP $44,000), a $20,000 scholarship for their school and an internship at High End Systems, with the opportunity to join the company full time following a successful trial period.

Catch a Sneak Preview of Carnegie Mellon’s International Film Festival Feb. 27

Carnegie Mellon News - Carnegie Mellon University: Carnegie Mellon University’s International Film Festival will offer a sneak preview of the festival’s 2015 award-winning lineup with “Song from the Forest.” The German film about a musicologist from New York City who spends 25 years in the Congo will be shown at 6:30 p.m., Feb. 27 in McConomy Auditorium.

Protests at Maroon 5 Concert in Atlanta Highlight Live Nation's Low Wages Paid to Stagehands

Buzz : Music Times: The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees will be protesting outside of a Maroon 5 concert in Atlanta on February 19, alleging that Live Nation mistreats stagehands operating in the Georgia capital. The group is labeling the behavior of the concert promoter in the city as a "bad performance." You can see the organization's letter of complaint at Digital Music News.

Stagehands Protesting Mistreatment at Live Nation Concert in Atlanta

Digital Music NewsDigital Music News: This Thursday’s performance onstage at the Maroon 5 concert in Atlanta will be great, but backstage it’s a different story. Stagehands work in poor conditions, are paid poverty-level wages, with no benefits – for a job that is often dangerous. On Thursday evening, outside Philips Arena, stagehands and their supporters will hold banners and approach concertgoers with information on this and other “poor performances.”

Transcendence

Carnegie Mellon News - Carnegie Mellon University: Students in Carnegie Mellon University's Entertainment Technology Center (ETC) created a game to help children who have experienced trauma. The game earned an honorable mention from the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations PEACEapp competition.

Virtual Color Consultation Yields Trend-Proof Results

Remodeling: Sorry, marsala. Color expert Gretchen Schauffler says of all her 3,000 clients she's never had a single one ask her to put that year's Color of the Year on their walls. "What they will say is, 'my house needs to be refreshed,' or 'I love my house, I just need to make sure it looks updated,'" says the founder of paint company Devine Color. She adds that trend colors like 2015's marsala and 2014's radiant orchid are great for punching up a wardrobe every year, but that the walls of a home should transcend annual trends.

Concert stagehands protest for a living wage, union contract outside Philips Arena tonight

Atlanta News & Opinion Blog | Fresh Loaf | Creative Loafing Atlanta: If you’re heading to the Maroon 5 concert at Philips Arena tonight, prepare to be greeted by union activists with banners protesting a “Poor Performance.”

Their problem isn’t with the pop-rockers. Rather it's concert promoter Live Nation’s use of local stagehands who are forced to accept what union reps think are “poverty-level” wages for helping to put on such dazzling rock shows.

A Single Cable With Swappable Connectors Wants To Replace All Your Wires

gizmodo.com: Traveling for work usually involves bringing along a small mountain of electronics, each with cables that need to tag along too. But a new Kickstarter promises to replace them all—power, video, and audio—with a single multi-headed cord that can handle any connection that wireless hasn't already replaced.

CDG Celebrates The Art of Costume Design

Below the Line: On Tuesday evening, costume designers, the stars they dress and the directors they work for, came out to the Beverly Hilton for a magical night to celebrate the art of costume design at the 17th annual Costume Designers Guild Awards.

Traveling Tool Chest with a Mind-blowing Surprise

Popular Woodworking Magazine: Christopher Schwarz and Jameel Abraham are working together on a tool chest article for the August and October issues of Popular Woodworking Magazine. Chris built the box; Jameel created a carved marquetry panel for the lid. Yes – a carved marquetry panel.

Pittsburgh Playwrights Festival in Black and White showcases diversity

New Pittsburgh Courier: Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company’s Festival in Black and White: Multicultural Edition is poised to shine a light on Pittsburgh’s diverse communities by showcasing plays from an array of Pittsburgh playwrights from various cultural backgrounds.

'The Phantom of the Opera' chandelier is prepped to meet its fate in Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: A spectacular chandelier is as crucial to “The Phantom of the Opera” as the man behind the mask or Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Music of the Night.” So when the touring company now at the Benedum Center was redesigned for the next generation of phanatics, the company went big and with a nod to the original.

Writing Letters Can Boost Your Career

The Muse: On January 1, I made an unusual resolution. I committed to sending one hand-written letter per week—and not to relatives, or friends, or former teachers, but to other professionals. What would these letters say? That would depend on the week and the person. (Basically, I’d wing it.) My only rule was the letter wouldn’t include any requests; I didn’t want it to come off as a polite way of asking for something.

Automated External Defibrillators—Deploying Slowly

Occupational Health & Safety: Sudden Cardiac Arrest. Read the daily news and you will recognize these three words. Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA) kills an estimated 7 million worldwide and 460,000 people in the United States each year, according to the American Heart Association.

SCA kills more people than Alzheimer's disease, assault with firearms, breast cancer, cervical cancer, colorectal cancer, diabetes, HIV, house fires, motor vehicle accidents, prostate cancer, and suicides combined, according to the Sudden Cardiac Arrest Foundation.