Dead in Pa: Don Brockett

I love Mr. Rogers, as I've previously waxed on about. Let's discuss one of the lesser characters... Anyone remember this fellow?
Chef Brockett was a little before my time, but I recall him from reruns (because nothing REALLY changes in the neighborhood). He was one of those characters who bridged the Land of Makebelieve and the real world, running a bakery in the real neighborhood to sell to the makebelieve puppets.

Well, apparently once the IRS got tired of his profits-from-pretend-world money laundering scheme, and considering that Edgar Cooke runs a Hell's Kitchen, the actor Don Brockett did have to find other work. Let's see if we can place him in the next clip.



Yup, the friendly chef with a limp went on to become a Romero zombie.... uncredited, of course. Let's see where else he turns up.



Did you catch him? Right at 5 seconds in. Awesome right? He also had a credit in "Bloodsucking Pharohs in Pittsburgh", which I MUST track down for my own amusement.

So, now I want to construct a scenario where those three items all intertwine into one dialogue. Like-- Psychopathic killer has long term hallucinations of being a baker and serving cookies to puppets. After zombie apocalypse, he is one of the head zombies thanks to his pre-death violence.... I don't know.

Anyway, poor Don passed away in 95, and is buried in Pittsburgh.

Oh, and he was in Flashdance too, but... Pfft

Pitt Dinos... again

I'm going to wrap up the Pittsburgh dinos, at least for the time being, with two particularly creepy dinos.

Gah! Personally, I find dino bones fascinating, but visible and embedded in a unrealistic statue, it's more than surreal. Let's get a close up.
Ah, I see, he's being worked on by a man with a poor grasp of anatomy (hip bones don't work that way, nor to ribs.) Makes you wonder if he's supposed to be an artist or an archeologist.

Let's try something less macabre.
Disco dino! The mirrors sort of echo the mirrored outside of the surrounding buildings. This is also our first Stegosaurus.
Both of these dinos live with the ketchup bottle Triceratops at the PPG plaza.

More Pitt Dinos

Continuing on the theme of Pittsburgh's Dino fascination, I'm going to draft off of yesterday's Heinz memorial.

Actually this one is a little disturbing in a way. The solid red plastic actually doesn't show much detail. And look at that... nose cap.


I'm guessing this is one of those where on paper, combining a dino and the Heinz bottle was much more successful.

Dead in Pa: Heinz

This is a post on condiments.

Searching for "recipes ketchup" brings back 1,110,000 results on google. That's just the things that people put ketchup IN, not counting what we slather ketchup on (and let's face it, mayo on French Fries is considered positively unAmerican). The man who brought ketchup to the masses was born 165 years ago today. Named Henry James Heinz, he started out peddling vegetables off of a cart in Sharpsburg. Soon, he had formed a horseradish company. It went bankrupt. I'm not surprised. Horseradish isn't exactly a crowd pleaser.

He tried again, forming F & J Heinz company. The F and the J were the initials of his brother and cousin. This time, they made and sold all sorts of condiments, with ketchup becoming a best seller. The 57 varieties thing is pretty much nonsense, for the record. Heinz just liked the sound of the phrase.
Today, the Heinz bottle is instantly recognizable, with an almost Warhol-like pop culture appeal with the arched logo in the keystone shaped label. Their headquarters are still in Pittsburgh, and they are the third major employer there.
Henry James's grave is in Pittsburgh, a marble masoleum with iron work that has the sort of turn of the century elite overcompensation you'd expect.
Although I'd love to say there is a hidden tomato or relish bottle in the architecture, it's pretty standard, sadly.

Piggy Bank Dino

Continuing our tour of Pittsburgh's dinos, let's go to the unrealistic. I think a Triceratops that's a piggy bank would be a fine lead in.Great savings? Found in front of the Shady Lane School.
I prefer this patchwork/letters Tri, found on the corner of Forbes and Bellefonte.

These are obviously part of some city-wide art project which has organizations decorating the statues. Pennsylvania is fond of this, and if you look you'll see a lot of towns doing this--cows and horses are popular in particular. I just think this is a fun quirky choice, as Triceratops skeletons haven't been found in Pa.

Dippy

Every town has a past time. Pittsburgh's is dinosaurs, and I have the photographic proof other than the terrifying Mr. Rogers/T Rex mashup

Let's start with the realistic.
This is a life sized replica of a Diplodocus carnegi. It was found in Wyoming, but named after the famous Pittsburgh Steel millionaire Andrew Carnegie--not because Carnegie himself had anything to do with the dinosaur, but because it was paleontogists from Carnegie Museum who found it. And that is where the bones are.

Best of all though, the nickname for the dinosaur is "Dippy", (which I can't help but find hysterically close to the TV Show's Land of the Lost's brontosaurus "Dopey"). They apparently had that in mind when they sculpted the face. Look at that expression.

One of those quite uniquely Pennsylvanian phenomena which managed to world is Mr. Roger's Neighborhood. Produced in Pennsylvania, (Pittsburgh, in fact), and featuring people who lived in Pennsylvania, and made by Pennsylvanians. (The Land of Make Believe is probably just outside Allegheny county... prove me wrong).

The show was gentle, soothing, and slow paced, keeping kids interest at a totally different pace than most shows in the modern era. It entertained children through generation, with Mr. Rogers at the forefront, as a sympathetic, approachable and kind character.

So, what better way to commemorate him, you ask, than dressing up a giant statue of a carnivorous prehistoric beast in his image?
Standing outside of WQED in Pittsburg, that is in fact a Tyranosaurus Rex Mr. Rogers. He's cradling Henrietta Pussycat and King Friday XIII, who usually kept to the land of Make Believe and didn't keep company with the human Mr. Rogers--because he voiced them. That's probably why the dino version of Rogers is so cranky... or because he can't reach to consume him with his tiny, useless arms.

The puppets are better realized than the T Rex itself, but seriously look. It's wearing white soled sneakers for the dinosaur to somehow take off at the beginning of the show. His tie is done in an impeccable Half Windsor.

I would love for this to be the rebranding of the show for the next generation, quite frankly, but I figure that won't happen.

To see Fred Roger's real life, non-man eating genius, check this out

A fabulous picture link can be found off of the blog of Studio Ruthe, (whose website is fabulously named "fat old artist") It's a collection of some of the more fantastic towers to be found around Pittsburgh. The mirrored PPG Building pictures are awesome, as are her "cloud factories", but I have to say that this one is my favorite:Anyway, be sure to check it out.