PYROTOPIA: Festival Of Fire Arts Coming To Pittsburgh’s Waterfront on Saturday, April 28

  Festival Features Local Artists, Fireworks And Children’s Activities

 Event At The Historic Pump House Will Be The First Of Its Kind On East Coast


PITTSBURGH, PA (March 30, 2012) – Pyrotopia: 1st Annual Festival of Fire Arts will be held from 8pm until midnight on Saturday, April 28, 2012 at The Historic Pump House & Water Tower, 880 E. Waterfront Drive, Munhall, located at Pittsburgh’s Waterfront. The one-day event is free and open to the public.

As the East Coast’s first-ever festival dedicated to fire arts, Pyrotopia will present fire’s diversity of use by artists and celebrate humankind’s primal fascination with fire. Pyrotopia will entertain, enchant and introduce attendees to the use of fire, as well as electricity and light, as artistic media by showcasing artists employing these elements in many ways.

Festival installations and performers will include:

• Flaming Simon, a fire-driven version of the electronic game "Simon" created by Pittsburgh artist and Pyrotopia founder Eric Singer.

• Fiery Flamenco Dancing by Carolina Loyola-Garcia. She will perform “In the Time of Memory” with live musical accompaniment by Jon Bañuelos, James Bond, Luke Savage and Barb York.

• Fire spinners and dancers from Steel Town Fire, Pittsburgh’s premiere fire performance troupe.

• Megavolt Tesla Coil, a six-foot tall Tesla coil created by Pittsburgh engineer Mark Barlow.

• A special ground-effects fireworks show by New Castle’s Pyrotecnico, which orchestrated the dazzling fireworks display at the 2011 Three Rivers Regatta.

• Live demonstrations of fire-related arts, including glassblowing, pewter casting, and plasma torch cutting.

The evening will be co-hosted by jazz chanteuse Phat Man Dee and performance artist Andrew the Impaled. DJ Zombo will play special sets of fire-themed music throughout the night.

Carrie Blast Furnace Lighting
In conjunction with the festival, Rivers of Steel National Heritage Area will illuminate the Carrie Blast Furnace complex across the river from the pump house later in the evening, providing a dramatic backdrop for the event.

Children’s Events on Saturday Afternoon
On Saturday afternoon from noon until 5pm, the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh and the Carnegie Science Center will present special programming for families, including hands-on art projects with Black Light Spin Art and LED Lanterns, and demonstrations showing the science of fire and how fireworks get their color.

Funded by Sprout, Heinz and Grable
Major funding for Pyrotopia is provided by a Seed Award from the Sprout Fund and a Small Arts Initiative grant from the Heinz Endowments. Funding from the Grable Foundation will support daytime educational and DIY arts programming for children, family-oriented activities and promotion geared to bring families to the event.

“Funding from Sprout, the Heinz Endowments and the Grable Foundation will allow us to stage an artistic event that is unprecedented in the area and on the East Coast,” said Eric Singer, festival founder and lead organizer. “The rapid growth and interest in festivals like Burning Man and The Crucible Fire Arts Festival on the West Coast signal a deep fascination with fire used in performance, installation and sculpture. We are creating this festival to unleash Southwestern Pennsylvania's own unique brand of fire art.”

The team producing Pyrotopia is comprised of artists, technologists, producers and other experts with long-term experience in working safely with fire and employing fire in artistic practice.

For more information about the festival, please see www.pyrotopia.net.

About Eric Singer
Pyrotopia founder Eric Singer is a musician, artist, engineer and programmer and the Founder of LEMUR: League of Electronic Musical Urban Robots. He holds a BS in Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon; a Diploma in Music Synthesis from Berklee College of Music; and an MS in Computer Science from New York University. He has over 20 years of experience in the areas of electronic musical instruments, interactive systems, robotics and pyrotechnics. He performs and lectures around the world and teaches a wide range of art and technology subjects. He is known internationally for his software and hardware products for interactive art creation. He founded the NYC Burning Man regional organization in 1998, is a co-founder of the NYC machine and fire arts collective The Madagascar Institute and has taught at the NYU Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP) and the Carnegie Mellon College of Fine Arts.

About The Sprout Fund
The Sprout Fund is a nonprofit organization supporting innovative ideas and grassroots community projects that are catalyzing change in Pittsburgh. Founded in 2001, Sprout is designed to facilitate community-led solutions to regional challenges and supports efforts to create a thriving, progressive, and culturally diverse region. With strong working relationships to many community organizations and regional stakeholders, The Sprout Fund is one of Southwestern Pennsylvania’s leading agencies on issues related to civic engagement, talent attraction and retention, public art, and catalytic small-scale funding. With ongoing local support and continued appreciation by the communities it serves, The Sprout Fund will continue to provide an entry point for young people to become involved and active in their communities and support projects that have the collective power to shape a new culture and vision for the region. For more, see www.sproutfund.org.

About the Heinz Endowments
The Heinz Endowments supports efforts to make southwestern Pennsylvania a premier place to live and work, a center for learning and educational excellence, and a region that embraces diversity and inclusion. For more information, see www.heinz.org.

About the Grable Foundation
The Grable Foundation's mission is to help children and youth to become independent, caring, contributing members of society by supporting programs critical to a child's successful development. For more information, see www.grablefdn.org.

 Contact: Drue Miller, Festival Marketing Director
press@pyrotopia.net
(412) 266-5192

Brush with Greatness: Hanging Out with Bill Campbell

It’s a rare opportunity to come face to face with one of the world’s most brilliant and renowned businessmen and tech gurus.

It becomes extraordinary when you get to share a beer and hear unbelievable stories with said person — all while it goes down in Duke’s Bar in Homestead.

Yup, the Pittsburgh Technology Council brought the infamous Bill Campbell to town as part of its Venture Out series to arm local entrepreneurs with business-building knowledge from the world’s top business minds.

In case you don’t know Bill Campbell, he’s a Homestead native and hero/legend in Silicon Valley. There’s not enough space to review his resume, but the highlights include being on the board of Apple since 1997, a close friend with Steve Jobs, mentored Jeff Bezos and has been running Intuit.

So after a sell-out crowd at the PTC event where his presentation was a mixture of tall tales, business advice and the occasional F-bomb, Campbell gathered an entourage of high school classmates, business associates and other notables, including Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Charlie Batch for a few rounds of beers and a deep-fried, Homestead-style buffet at local watering hole Duke’s Upper Deck on 8^th Avenue.

Magazine spreads and pictures of Campbell at various Homestead charity events dotted the walls. While I was talking to Batch about his Best of Batch Foundation (batchfoundation.org) that helps local underprivileged youth and their families, Campbell wanders over and puts his arm around Batch with a Bud Light dangling from his free hand.

Campbell instantly engages me in the conversation and before I knew it, we were talking about Ray Lane of HP and Kleiner Perkins. I was telling Campbell about his presentation in Pittsburgh last year. Campbell gave me an earful about Lane’s investments. As the conversation progressed, I couldn’t believe I was swapping stories with one of the world’s most brilliant technology and business minds. It was quite surreal.

So there I was, smack dab in the heart of Homestead talking to two of the coolest dudes I’ve ever met. I can’t believe that guys like Campbell and Batch would talk so openly and candidly with a pip squeak like me.

Just goes to show you that you can take the man out of Homestead, but you can’t take Homestead out of the man!

Bill is a class act. So is Charlie. Goes to show you that Pittsburghers are solid people and they rarely forget their roots. No BS at all. Bill and Charlie prove it.

So back to Campbell’s presentation earlier in the day. He was pretty adamant about not having media. We convinced him that a little coverage would be a good thing. I almost scored an interview for TechVibe Radio, but five solid, quiet minutes proved impossible.

So I took notes furiously.  I wanted to glean a few nuggets of wisdom from his fast-paced presentation. I came away with a few sound bytes for lack of a better term. Here’s what I got:

• Invest in people, not companies.
• Get the best engineering manager that you can afford.
• Hire big right off the bat.
• Hire a financial person to pick up the loose balls.
• You MUST have complete passion for the product.
• VCs need to help their portfolio companies get better at what they do.
• Tech communities need a strong VC presence to survive.

Take it for what it’s worth. Bill Campbell is an inspiring figure to say the least. He sees nothing but possibilities!

At the end of his presentation, Campbell was asked about his passion for giving back. He went into a long answer that ended with him choking up just a bit recognizing the work of Batch. I’ll go ut on a limb and end this with a direct quote from Bill:

“I wish everybody would do for their home towns what Charlie does for his!”

 http://www.techburgher.com/breaking-news/brush-greatness-hanging-bill-campbell/

Posted on 29, Mar 2012 by Jonathan Kersting

Rivers of Steel looking for Carrie Blast Furnace Volunteers

Have a Pittsburgh steel story to tell?

April 10, 2012

Carrie Blast Furnace set to start 2012 tour season; looking to expand volunteer base

Rivers of Steel National Heritage Area, is looking to expand its volunteer base at the Carrie Blast Furnace complex for the 2012 tour guide season. The National Historic Landmark is managed by the steel heritage nonprofit and has been getting a lot of attention in recent months, from appearing on Travel Channel’s “Off Limits” and PBS’ “Antiques Roadshow” to being utilized as a backdrop for music videos and movies.

The only steel site of its kind open to tourists in the Pittsburgh region, the century-old furnace complex was the heart and soul of the US Steel Homestead Works. A tour takes visitors through the whole steel-making process including the Ore Yard, the Car Dumper, the Torpedo Car, the Blowing Engine House, the Hot Stoves and finally the cast house surrounding Carrie Furnace No. 6. Included on the site is the famous “Deer Head” sculpture, an homage to the years of shut down the site has endured since the mid-80s.

Rivers of Steel is looking for volunteers with a connection to Pittsburgh’s steel industry and/or heritage who can not only can interpret our region’s steel story and learn to interpret the Carrie Blast Furnace site but can also share vignettes of their own steel-related experiences. Those interested can attend an informational meeting at 2:30 PM and 5:15 PM Friday April 13 at The Bost Building, 623 E. 8th Ave., Homestead, Pa. For more information, contact Sherris Moreira at 412.464.4020, ext. 46 or email smoreira@riversofsteel.com

The Rivers of Steel National Heritage Area is managed by the nonprofit Rivers of Steel Heritage Corporation (RSHC) in partnership with the National Park Service and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. RSHC works with communities throughout Southwestern Pennsylvania to identify, conserve, promote and interpret the cultural, historic, recreational and other resources associated with steel-related industries. The goal of Rivers of Steel National Heritage Area is to use these resources to encourage community revitalization through cultural tourism, historic preservation, natural and recreational resource development. Rivers of Steel National Heritage area encompasses Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Fayette, Greene, Washington and Westmoreland counties. For more information visit www.riversofsteel.com


Contact: Sherris Moreira
Director of Marketing
412.464.4020, ext. 46
smoreira@riversofsteel.com
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Sandcastle Waterpark Announces Dragon's Den as a New Attraction for 2012!

With summer just a few months away, Sandcastle Waterpark is proud to announce Dragon's Den as the newest addition to our family of water slides.

West Homestead, PA (PRWEB) April 04, 2012

Dragon’s Den is the biggest addition to Sandcastle in nearly ten years! "We want to try to keep things fun and exciting for our guests,” says Sandcastle's General Manager Damian Dondero. "This has been a few years in the making and we are excited to add a waterslide that is completely different than any other experience we currently have at Sandcastle."

Dragon's Den will offer guests maximum thrills as they catapult through a dark and mysterious 45 foot tunnel slide, which then plummets them into a 35 foot bowl where they encounter a 9 foot tall dragon that spits mist at its riders. After completing 2-4 revolutions in the mist-shrouded abyss, guests will suddenly disappear from sight, splashing down in a landing pool.

Located adjacent to the Mon Tsunami Wave Pool and behind the Snack Shack, Dragon's Den is a two- person tube slide. Riders must be 48 inches or taller to ride. The slide is manufactured by ProSlide Technology Inc. Construction on the Dragon's Den is expected to be finished in time for opening day of the 2012 season.

Sandcastle is open daily June 9 through August 19. Sandcastle is also open the weekends of May 26-28, June 2-3, Aug 25-26 and Sept 1-3.Gates open at 11AM. Admission is $31.99; senior (55+) and guests 48" and under are $21.99. For Group Sales call 412.464.9931. Experience the excitement of Dragon's Den all summer long with a 2012 Sandcastle Season Pass! Visit http://www.sandcastlewaterpark.com for more information.

Sandcastle is part of the Palace Entertainment family of parks.
Palace Entertainment owns and operates 40 theme parks, waters parks and family entertainment centers nationwide, including Kennywood and Idlewild. Palace entertains millions of guests annually and is one of the largest park operators in the nation.