April 10, 2024 - Pittsburgh City Paper

DISCO DAZE

Even before Studio 54, Thomas Jayson made Pittsburgh a disco destination

DISCO DISCO DISCO

DAZE DAZE DAZE

Thomas Jayson was one of disco’s forefathers, and even at 80, hasn’t given up the nightlife game

BY RACHEL WILKINSON // RWILKINSON@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

Ladies and gentlemen, this is Major Tom, your computer speaking,” Thomas Jayson recalls the nightly speech would go at famed Pittsburgh hotspot Club 2001. “In 60 seconds, the room will go into total darkness. So please remain where you are standing or seated. Enjoy the show,” Jayson repeats. “And then it would go black … you’d hear [a] 10-9-8 [countdown] and when it [hit] one, it would blast off, and we had a big, big sound system in place with vibrating strobe lights.” An eight-screen panel surrounding the dance floor played panoramic footage of the moon landing, then a slideshow of photos from the city.

That opening ceremony is a relic of the club scene’s heyday, when

partygoers packed the Strip District, Station Square, the South Side, and parts of the suburbs, u nfolding roughly from the late 1970s to the mid-2000s. No single factor caused its decline, but contributors were changing consumer habits, a looming recession, and a series of high-profile crimes. ( Pittsburgh City Paper n ews editor Colin Williams recently investigated why 2020s nightlife still hasn’t bounced back.)

Yet the nostalgia for the nightlife of yesteryear remains (some Gen Z-ers even feel cheated). Interviewing some of the city’s senior swing dancers this winter, memories of Chauncy’s surfaced more than once, as did Confetti, a nightclub in the since-demolished Parkway Center Mall in Green Tree. Spend any time with Gen Xers and

elder millennials and you’ll undoubtedly hear tales of wild nights at Bar Pittsburgh, Metropol, Rosebud, and Donzi’s — the latter being part of the Boardwalk, a floating entertainment complex on a barge moored to the Allegheny River near the 16th Street Bridge, also home to Tequila Willies and Club Champagne ( R.I.P. Old Pittsburgh).

Because these clubs predate my time in Pittsburgh — though I managed to catch Saddle Ridge, Station Square’s erstwhile country saloon, in its swan song — each time an unfamiliar one is mentioned, I look it up, eager for details about $2 cover charges, supersized dance floors, and candy-colored decor. In my searches, a name began to recur — Thomas Jayson, a Pittsburgh

businessman who once had a financial stake in more than a dozen local nightclubs.

“It’s hard to bar hop on the Pittsburgh night scene without giving money to Thomas Jayson,” a 2006 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article read. “Few entrepreneurs have had more of an impact on local nightlife than the reclusive Carnegie entrepreneur.”

At the time, Jayson’s holdings included Touch, Chauncy’s, Rock Jungle, Donzi’s, Cruiser’s, Sports Rock Cafe, Light, Bongo’s, Mirage, Matrix, Tequila Willies, Ref’s, and Callahan’s. Crime and public disturbances had contributed to several of their closures, and following bankruptcy proceedings in 2007, Jayson dropped out of news coverage.

Having just celebrated his 80th birthday, I wasn’t expecting much when I reached out to Jayson and his former wife, Maggie Jayson, who was listed on some of the old clubs’ documents.

But Maggie, who remains friends with Jayson (she also calls him Jayson), was matter-of-fact.

“Oh yes, we lived that life,“ she said. “My husband was the king of disco.”

Not only is the originator of so many favorite venues still in Pittsburgh, he never left Station Square. For years he’s run a sports bar, Homerun Harry’s, across from Hard Rock Cafe, it serves breakfast and stays open until 2 a.m. seven days a week.

and iconic sports moments line the walls, including a second-by-second series showing the demolition of Civic Arena in 2011.

More than 50 years on from when his first venture made news, Thomas Jayson still doesn’t like talking to the media — “I never did want to be known,” he says — though he can describe his clubs down to

“WITH THE LIT DANCE FLOOR AND THE MIRRORED BALL … THE WHOLE AURA OF IT WAS SO DIFFERENT BACK THEN. THERE WAS NOTHING EVER LIKE IT.”

“It’s so retro ,” Maggie says of the bar, and the first thing I notice walking in is the brown shag carpeting. Diner booths surround a ’70sstyle wood-paneled bar with large mounted TVs, and framed blackand-white photos of star athletes

the finest detail.

His first big success was not any of the mainstays that lasted into the 2000s, or even the Boardwalk, but less-discussed Pittsburgh lore: the 2001 Club. Named after the 1968 Stanley Kubrick film, the 2001 Club

was a chain of disco nightclubs that became the most successful disco franchise in the country. Though various sources list the first location as opened in 1974, the Jaysons correct the record: it was 1972, on General Robinson Street in the North Side. Predating Studio 54 (which Jayson later designed lighting controls for) or the supposedly unrelated 2001 Odyssey disco club that John Travolta’s character frequents in Saturday Night Fever , Pittsburgh’s 2001 Club was one of birthplaces of disco.

The 2001 concept was relatively simple: a lit dance floor Jayson designed with an engineer alongside a then cutting-edge computerized sound system that played preprogrammed music. He named the sound system Major Tom (ostensibly after the David Bowie hit “Space Oddity,” but maybe also after himself), and fondly recalls how that cosmic countdown speech would kick off every night at the club, and how the masses flocked to it.

The opening of the first location

PHOTO: COURTESY OF MAGGIE JAYSON Staff and light up signs at Club 2001

in Pittsburgh, with a 16,000-squarefoot dance floor, was a “home run,” the Jaysons say. According to them, it was packed, with 2,000 people waiting outside in line.

Maggie, then 22 and a biology teacher, was one of them, and tired of waiting, she flagged down the club’s proprietor and asked him to call her a cab home.

“I said, ‘I’ll take you home,’” Thomas remembers. “That’s how we met.”

Thomas already had plans to franchise the 2001 Club, moving his plug-and-play discos from city centers into the suburbs. The goal was to become “the McDonald’s of the glitter ball world … to bring disco to the American shopping center,” as author Alice Echols put it in her history of disco, Hot Stuff

Maggie came aboard as a jackof-all-trades, making “flashy foil costumes” for staff with the help of her neighbor, picking out color and design elements — Marimekko flower patterns, macrame wall hangings

— keeping up with administrative work, and taking all the photos used in the high-tech slideshows, forming her own company, 2001 Productions.

For years, the Jaysons would travel to different locations to conduct feasibility studies, eventually launching 2001 Club franchises in about 25 cities — including in Bridgeville and Hampton Township.

“I gave [Jayson] $500 from my savings,” to open in Bridgeville, Maggie says. “And we did it on tick.” Still, it was “an instant hit.”

“It was pretty amazing the looks on people’s faces, just how in awe,” she says. “With the lit dance floor and the mirrored ball … the whole aura of it was so different back then. There was nothing ever like it.”

Meanwhile, her husband stayed “building, building, building,” especially around Pittsburgh, he says. “That’s all I did for 30, 40 years.”

Though Chauncy’s was his longest-running spot, and likely the most popular, my favorite description is of Station Square’s Rock Jungle, opened

PHOTO: COURTESY OF MAGGIE JAYSON Jayson and friends

next to Hooters in 2000 (named after the former Rumjungle bar and club at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas).

The club was framed by sheets of glass, with lush palm trees, waterfalls, steady sprays of mist, a fire display, and, naturally, a piranha bar with “three 500-gallon tanks with man-eating fish,” Jayson says casually. “Every night at midnight, [we’d] feed them rats and mice n’at. And the whole place, boom! … Blood everywhere, gone in 30 seconds.”

Similarly, Matrix, opened shortly after Rock Jungle, had themed rooms. A Roman-style space called Goddess shimmered with all-white decor and gold framed portraits of stars like Madonna; Exit, a dark, eerie room with incense burning, featured a DJ in a monk’s robe spinning alt-rock from a candlelit altar. A private club, Heaven, had similar aesthetics, with white rugs, a shoe check, and white phones that dialed long-distance to anywhere in the world. And this was all alongside the Boardwalk, opened 1991, which Jayson described to the P-G while planning it as “the largest sports nightclub restaurant complex in the world” to which “everything I’ve done in my life has been a prelude.”

In talking with the Jaysons, it becomes apparent that what’s missing today might not just be boozy late-night partying, but largerthan-life themed entertainment and

‘70s-style maximalism.

Novelty is a tricky thing, Thomas says. Even in the late ‘90s, he took to heart the words of an MIT economist that he saw on TV who said all entertainment wears thin; people will always want new experiences, and Jayson points out that most clubs, even when successful, are short lived.

Still, even at Homerun Harry’s — which Maggie suggests could have a dance floor — times have changed.

“It’s not the same,” Thomas says. “I see a guy come in with a date. They’ll sit at the bar, they each have their phone, and they’re not even talking.”

These days the biggest draw is Jayson’s cat, Larry, who comes into the restaurant and has a reserved seat at the bar under his own portrait (a gift from Maggie). Larry’s birthday was promoted, and according to the Jaysons, 100 people showed up to his party at the bar.

But “everything recycles,” Maggie counsels those pining for the old days. “Just like bell bottoms. Platform shoes are back.”

She laments not so much the loss of clubbing and disco, but that social aspect, where she sees room for a resurgence.

“I think there’s a time for disco to come back,” Maggie says. “Because I think it was such a good way for people to connect and meet … talk to each other.”

•

PHOTO: COURTESY OF THOMAS JAYSON Front and back of a post card during the sale of the Boardwalk

PNC Park has gotten some exciting updates ahead of the 2024 season, yet most fans will never see what's arguably the most important one. There's new food, of course, including the viral, pierogi-topped Renegade Dog (which is actually quite tasty). There's also a massive new team store beyond left field that's full of fresh merch, tasteful renovations and thoughtfully curated art throughout the club level, more self-serve food and drink options, and plenty of whiskey from the Pirates' "sister organization" Wigle Whiskey, which team owner Bob Nutting bought in 2022.

whiteboards, TVs, bathrooms stocked with toiletries, and mini fridges full of sports drinks. Pirates president Travis Williams says this is all part of the Buccos "invest[ing] heavily in player and coach development."

"A lot the enhancements that we've made to the ballpark over the last couple years have really been focused on the fan experience," Williams told assembled media. "This year, we included in some enhancements that won't be so visible to some fans, but are equally as important to the organization."

Perhaps surprising is that PNC initially came equipped for a more

"WHEN THE PARK WAS BUILT IN 2001, WE ACTUALLY BUILT IT WITH WOMEN UMPIRES IN MIND,"

But just off the service tunnel near the Pirates' locker room are spaces that represent something of a sea change in baseball: purpose-built locker rooms for women coaches, both home and away, and women umpires. Each includes spacious wooden lockers, padded seating,

women-inclusive baseball environment. When it opened, the ballpark already featured facilities for women umpires — the difference then was there was no one to use them.

"When the park was built in 2001, we actually built it with women umpires in mind," Jackie Riggleman,

the Pirates' director of facility operations and strategy, said as Pittsburgh reporters filed through the space. "As time went along, we changed that room into multiple different things over the years because there wasn't a female umpire in the league."

That's shifted in 2024, with umpire Jen Pawol becoming the first woman to umpire a Spring Training game since 2007. Pawol is currently

Opening Day, but she's on the MLB's call-up list. Riggleman said there are also other women actively umpiring in the minor leagues.

When they come to PNC, Pawol and others will now have their own space adjacent to the umpire's conference room. Visiting women coaches such as the Giants' Alyssa Nakken will likewise have separate facilities for their use. Although the

working as a coach on staff, three women working for the team in nutrition and massage therapy roles will now have access to a space comparable in quality to the men's.

"The home women's locker room now matches all the finishes of our men's coaches' locker room," Riggleman said. "They have their own private spaces equipped with six lockers, two showers, two toilets,

CP PHOTO: MARS JOHNSON

The restored bathroom for women umpires at PNC Park.

capacity to grow should the Bucs hire more non-male coaching staff — given Caitlyn Callahan's turn with the team in 2022, that seems more a question of when than if.

also boasts new food options and refreshed art.

But the behind-the-scenes accommodations for women are a sign of tangible progress in base -

"IT IS A GREAT SPACE FOR OUR WOMEN TO GO AND HAVE A LITTLE BIT OF TIME TO THEMSELVES."

Other additions to the servicelevel team facilities include a blue-lit sleep room with isolating pods, new conference and coaching facilities, and spaces for physical and mental therapy. The team's indoor batting cage sports a remarkable new pitching robot from Trajekt that can imitate any Major League pitcher, even shifting low enough to replicate the delivery of sidearm hurlers. The players' clubhouse cafeteria

ball in the area of gender. As women take more roles in MLB's front offices, video games, and even atop pitchers' mounds, the Pirates' upgraded spaces for women signal that many of these changes are here to stay.

Besides, Riggleman told the media, sometimes the hardworking women behind the Pirates just need a break. "It is a great space for our women to go and have a little bit of time to themselves," she said. .

CP PHOTO: MARS JOHNSON

The restored bathroom for women umpires at PNC Park.

HARDCORE PRINCESSES

Local up-and-comers Princess aren’t afraid of getting their hands dirty or tiaras dented.

PThe last decade of Pittsburgh hardcore can essentially be reduced to two paradigms: the Code Orange lane of bone-crushing mosh-core, and the Concealed Blade trail of old-school hardcore punk. Princess, one of the buzziest (and best) young bands in the Pittsburgh hardcore scene, occupy the middle path: They’re like that meme of the little girl asking, “¿Porque no los dos?”

Princess’s second EP, Wishes for an Untimely Demise (independently released on April 12), seamlessly merges feral hardcore punk with bloody-knuckle, metallic hardcore. Face-ripping standout “Traer Un Arma” (Spanish for “bring a gun”) oscillates between fast sprints designed to spark two-stepping and chuggy breakdowns that offer the karate-mosh warriors a chance to show off. Guitarist Noah Sommers’ riffs are barbed and metallic, but unlike his previous band, the metalcore manglers Cutting Ties, his simple chord progressions in Princess’ songs are influenced by his lifelong love of Black Flag and the Dead Kennedys.

PHOTO: COURTESY OF EVAN MULGRAVE Princess

Still, he and his bandmates — vocalist Mel Kennelly, bassist Zach Bird, and drummer Jordan Braverman — aren’t shy about signaling their taste for heavier fare.

“We want to show that we’re not afraid to put ass-beater riffs in punk songs,” Sommers says, smiling.

Princess’ self-titled debut EP , released in Feb. 2023, was lighter on its feet. It nodded to the blown-out hardcore of their elder contemporaries in Scowl and GEL, bands that Sommers and Kennelly say they were excited to channel when they started Princess, which began, as their notso-tough name lets on, as a sort of half-joke in summer 2022.

ideologies — which Kennelly calls “a huge part” of the band — were already apparent in the anti-police lyrics of their first EP, which were largely inspired by the injustices addressed by the Black Lives Matter protests. The band’s own pro-Palestinian beliefs were completely at odds with Crimewave’s, and fortunately, they were able to negotiate a swift split that Kennelly’s relieved to say “wasn’t messy.”

The incident encouraged Princess to remain independent until they find the perfect label home. In the meantime, every facet of the Princess operation is DIY. Sommers records and produces their music in practice spaces and basements, and the

“WE WANT TO SHOW THAT WE’RE NOT AFRAID TO PUT ASS-BEATER RIFFS IN PUNK SONGS.”

But things quickly got serious when they realized people were excitedly coming out to their first few shows to mosh and headbang — months before they even had any music out.

Since then, Princess have played all over Pittsburgh, opening for their hardcore heroes GEL, mathcore weirdos The Callous Daoboys, grindcore goofballs Escuela Grind, and virtually every other type of band under the hardcore umbrella. They’ve had a lot of fun making a name for themselves, but they also had good reason to go “heavier” and “angrier” on Wishes . Kennelly says she had some “really bad weeks and months” over the last year that spilled out into these new songs, several of which get highly personal.

Then there was their record label schism.

Many months after signing with the Connecticut-based Crimewave Records, the label head began telegraphing his militantly pro-Zionist politics in the days following the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel. Princess’s leftist

hurls the diss, “you’re nothing but a fucking Princess,” into the mirror, cheekily flipping the band’s own anthem into a self-depracative dig.

“Everybody, even us, can be little princesses sometimes,” Kennelly admits.

On “Relentless,” she shouts, “my body, my life, my rules,” which she describes as a two-pronged rallying cry: “A mixture between pro-choice [messaging] and either mine or anyone else’s experience with sexual assault.” In “Traer Un Arma,” Kennelly growls, “Bring a knife to a gun fight and you’ll fucking see / How your life means nothing / And you beg and you plead.” That might read like the prototypical hardcore revenge fantasy, but in this case, Kennelly is actually one looking down the barrel of the gun.

“I felt like I was the one bringing the knife,” she says of the event that inspired that rage-stricken song. Her second-person perspective offers a

fresh angle on a mode of interpersonal conflict that’s been well-tread across 40 years of first-person hardcore lyricism. It’s subtleties like that — in conjunction with their not-sosubtly raucous sound — that make Princess feel like they could be the city’s next great hardcore export. They have plans to (hopefully) tour later this year, but for now, they’ll keep racking up full-circle moments in Pittsburgh.

Kennelly says opening for GEL last summer at the Mr. Roboto Project was a “fever dream,” and, on May 13, they’ll return to that venue to open for Spy and Jivebomb — two of the hypest bands in American hardcore and ones that Princess happen to hold in high regard.

“Those are the bands we literally said we were listening to while we were [writing our first EP],” Sommers says, shaking his head in disbelief. “It’s kind of surreal.” •

band books all its own shows in and out of town. They’ve already played gigs in Ohio, West Virginia, and Rhode Island. At the latter show, they made friends with Chris Cesarini of notable Boston hardcore band Street Power and oi-core miscreants Conservative Military Image, who lends his yells to Wishes’ feisty title track.

That’s a pretty big get for a Pittsburgh hardcore band not even two years old. Sommers, Bird, and Braverman have all been playing in bands together since high school, but every achievement — and hiccup — is an exciting new experience for Kennelly. Princess is her first-ever band, and on Wishes , especially, it sounds like she’s unleashing a lifetime’s worth of pent-up rage when she screams about the personal and political trials of her everyday life experience.

Like many musicians who get vulnerable on the mic, Kennelly likens Princess to a form of therapy, and in between her righteously anticop, anti-abuser invectives, she also finds space to direct the rage inward. “Princess,” Wishes’ eponymous opener,

FOX CHAPEL, SUNDOWN TOWN

Instead of redlining and discrimination, the wealthy borough used restrictive zoning and a dedicated shuttle system to keep Black people out, creating a suburb that’s still overwhelmingly white.

BY DAVID S. ROTENSTEIN // INFO@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

Fox Chapel started as a sundo wn town: a community that was intentionally all white. Created in 1934, the borough doesn’t have “whites only” signs posted along the roads entering the community, but it might as well. For its entire history, Fox Chapel has had a negligible Black population, and, for a long time, there were no Black homeowners.

Many Pittsburghers single out Fox

Chapel, Mt. Lebanon, and Sewickley as the metropolitan area’s whitest and most historically segregated communities. In Sewickley and Mt. Lebanon, residents relied on a number of ways to exclude Black people in the 20 th century, including racially restrictive deed covenants.

“The premises above described shall in no event be sold to any person not of the White or Caucasian Race,” reads one 1930 covenant for a Mt.

Lebanon subdivision.

Another, filed in 1940 for homes in a Sewickley subdivision reads, “No lot or lots … nor any building thereon, shall be used or occupied, or permitted to be used or occupied, by any natural persons other than members of the White or Caucasian Race.” One exception: “The premises may be occupied in part by bona fide domestic servants of another Race employed on the premises.”

Though the deed covenants remain part of a property’s title history, ones that discriminate on the basis of race were declared unenforceable in 1948 by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Fox Chapel took a different approach. Developers there also used deeds to weed out people they deemed undesirable. Instead of categorically excluding Black people, however, deeds there specified that builders could only construct

CP PHOTO: DAVID S. ROTENSTEIN Entrance to the Fox Chapel Manor subdivision from Fox Chapel Road.

expensive single-family homes approved by an architectural review board.

After splitting from O’Hara Township, the borough’s zoning code excluded all businesses and non-residential land uses. Even today, there are no stores, no pharmacies, no banks, and no apartment buildings in the borough. O’Hara was left with less strictly regulated zoning and commercial properties that Fox Chapel’s founders deemed unsuitable.

residents: 967 were white, 20 were Black, and there were 93 foreign-born people living there. All of the Black Fox Chapel residents were domestic workers, identified in the census taken that year as “servants.”

A decade later, though Fox Chapel had more people —1,720 — all of its 70 Black residents were live-in maids, butlers (some of them married couples), and chauffeurs. In another example of this divide, all of the janitors, cooks, maids, and dishwashers

“A SELLER COULD SAY, ‘I’M NOT EXCLUDING A BLACK GUY, I’M EXCLUDING HIM FOR THE FACT THAT HE DIDN’T HAVE THE MONEY' OR, 'YOU KNOW, HIS PLAN DIDN’T PASS THE BOARD.’”

Fox Chapel Manor, created in 1924, was the first subdivision inside the future borough’s boundaries. Its developer, Walter A. Scott (the current mayor’s grandfather), required new homes to cost at least $15,000 ($269,000 in 2024) and be reviewed by three architects, including one selected by the Pittsburgh Real Estate Board.

None of Scott’s deeds, however, contained racial restrictions. Instead, his real estate company’s ads touted the community as “restricted.” It was the genteel way of saying “whites only.”

By 1940, Fox Chapel had 1,080

APRIL 12, 2024

who lived on the Shadyside Academy campus at the time were Black.

Fox Chapel’s wealthy residents realized they had a serious problem less than a decade after the borough’s founding: there was no public transportation to bring employees to private homes and country clubs, and there were no places within its boundaries for workers to live as owners or renters.

Instead of changing the policies that led to this exclusion, in 1942, five men bought a fleet of used buses and formed the Fox Chapel Transportation

Company. They began shuttling workers into Fox Chapel.

“The quaintly antiquated buses daily shuttle up and down the hill to Aspinwall,” wrote Post-Gazette reporter Ed Jensen in 1956, “hauling an army of cooks, maids, nurses, gardeners and handymen and caddies for the two country clubs.”

Walter A. Scott III, the early developer’s grandson, didn’t know about the bus company when Pittsburgh City Paper interviewed him. He also doesn’t believe that Fox Chapel deliberately excluded Blacks from living there.

“I don’t know that there was anything intentional going on in Fox Chapel,” Scott said. “It seemed like it was a long time before many African Americans moved into the community. But I don’t know if there was anything intentional going on.”

Scott also asserted that he is unaware of the many published accounts that Fox Chapel was hostile to Blacks. “Where are you hearing that information? I’ve not heard that,” he said.

Why has Fox Chapel had so few Black residents in its history? “It’s just sort of the way things happened.

I don’t think anybody was trying to say, hey, you can’t move here,” Scott explained.

Historians, Black Pittsburghers and historical records say otherwise.

“In Mt. Lebanon, an overwhelmingly white suburb in the South Hills, real estate agents simply refused to show homes to Blacks and Jews,” wrote historians Joe Trotter and Jared Day in Race and Rennaissance, their 2010 book on local Black history. “Such was the case in many other suburban communities, including Fox Chapel, Deer Lakes, Keystone Oaks, and Bethel Park.”

In an interview before he died Feb.

2, Community College of Allegheny County history professor Ralph Proctor described the Pittsburgh area communities with the highest barriers to Black entry. “Shadyside was horrible. Oakland was horrible,” he said. “Fox Chapel, unthinkable.”

“There’s a lot of unwritten rules,” says Tom Powers, who co-wrote a 2008 history of O’Hara Township. “A seller could say, ‘I’m not excluding a Black guy, I’m excluding him for the fact that he didn’t have the money' or, you know, 'His plan didn’t pass the board’, or what have you.”

That’s precisely what Fox Chapel’s founders did. Deed covenants and the borough’s zoning code kept Fox Chapel white for most of the 20 th century. Fox Chapel’s 1955 master plan underscored this by promoting development policies that only the wealthy could afford. And in Pittsburgh, when Black residents struggled to make $2,500 a year in 1945, economic and social conditions meant that wealthy and white were frequently interchangeable.

The plan’s promotion of large lot sizes (one acre was the smallest), no apartments, pricey homes, and the lack of basic infrastructure were high barriers, and Fox Chapel’s residents knew it. “Anyone daring to locate in Fox Chapel should realize to start with

that he or she cannot run down to the corner store for cigarettes or sundries or ride a street car home or to the movies,” wrote Ezra Stiles, the plan’s author. “Servants and children must be transported by the family car.”

Despite a sprinkling of Black Lives Matter signs in yards mainly in Fox Chapel’s southern part, and a successful 2021 push to have Squaw Run Road and its namesake creek renamed in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder the year before, Fox Chapel remains overwhelmingly white. The 2020 census reported 5,343 Fox Chapel residents; 59 people (1.1%) reported that they were Black or African American. Black residents comprise 13.5% of Allegheny County’s total population.

The borough’s demographic profile and incidents of racism reported in Fox Chapel Area schools hint at systemic unresolved issues. Taken together, the numbers and history tell a compelling story: Fox Chapel was, and in some ways remains, a sundown town. •

APR.,TUE.,16

THU., APRIL 11

TRIVIA • TROY HILL

Quiz for a Cause: Marvel Trivia with Planned Parenthood of Western Pennsylvania. 6:308:30 p.m. Threadbare Cider House. 1291 Spring Garden Ave., Troy Hill. $10. threadbarecider.com

ART • LAWRENCEVILLE

The paintbrush is mightier than the sword, at least in the case of Art Battle Pittsburgh at Spirit. Watch 12 artists compete to create masterful works in just 20 minutes during this spectator sport of creativity. After three rounds, a champion will emerge, and guests can bid on the competitors’ original art during a silent auction. 7-11 p.m. 242 51st St., Lawrenceville. $20. spiritpgh.com

MUSIC • STRIP DISTRICT

Matthew Sweet with Abe Partridge

7:30 p.m. Doors at 6 p.m. City Winery. 1627 Smallman St., Strip District. $30-45. Waitlist only. citywinery.com

COMEDY • ALLENTOWN

Jena Friedman 8 p.m. Doors at 5 p.m. Bottlerocket Social Hall. 1226 Arlington Ave., Allentown. $20. bottlerocketpgh.com

MUSIC • NORTH SIDE

Tucker Riggleman and The Cheap Dates with Creedmoors and Kelsie Cannon of Natural Rat 8 p.m. The Government Center. 715 East St., North Side. $10. thegovernmentcenter.com

FRI., APRIL 12

FESTIVAL • OAKLAND

Show your Pittsburgh zip code pride during the Rhythm & Threads 412 Day. The community event includes a wide variety of activities meant to highlight the music, culture, and makers of the city. Shop from 50 vendors, and head to the intersection of Winthrop St. and Craig St. to experience a skateboarding competition, graffiti art, dance, and more. There will also be an open mic and a showcase of local hip-hop and R&B artists. Proceeds benefit 1Hood Media. 12-6 p.m. S. Craig St., Oakland. Free. instagram.com/rhythm.and.threads

FILM • SEWICKLEY

Unsinkable: Titanic Untold Showtimes vary. Continues through Thu., April 18. Lindsay Theater and Cultural Center. 418 Walnut St., Sewickley. $8.75-11. thelindsaytheater.org

FILM • DOWNTOWN/ MONROEVILLE/VANDERGRIFT

An important piece of local cinema returns to its roots when New Amsterdam Entertainment presents the 45th-anniversary theatrical tour for George A. Romero’s Dawn of the Dead. The influential zombie film will screen at various Pittsburgh-area venues, including the Monroeville Mall, where much of it was shot. Events will also take place at the Downtown Harris Theater and the Riverside Drive In Theatre in Vandergrift. Showtimes vary. Multiple locations. Ticket prices vary. dawn45.com/us-showing

SAT., APRIL 13

FESTIVAL • GARFIELD

Holi Festival of Colors. 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Level Up Studios. 4836 Penn Ave., Garfield. Free. RSVP required. leveluppgh.com/events

PARTY • BRADDOCK

Braddock Carnegie Library 135th Birthday Bash 1-4 p.m. 1211 Braddock Ave., Braddock. $5-135. bcla.givecloud.co/bcla135

MUSIC • DOWNTOWN

Rock ‘N Remember Live! 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. Benedum Center. Seventh St. and Penn Ave., Downtown. $49-125. trustarts.org

PARTY • NORTH SIDE

21+ Night: Titanic Center. One Allegheny Ave., North Side. $35-40. carnegiesciencecenter.org

DANCE • EAST LIBERTY

Bodiography presents

Continues through Sun., April 14. Kelly Strayhorn Theater. 5941 Penn Ave., East Liberty. $15-30. kelly-strayhorn.org

FILM • NORTH SIDE

GRXWN FXLKS presents A Hiphopumentary

7 p.m. The Andy Warhol Museum. 117 Sandusky St., North Side. $6-12. warhol.org

PHOTO: MATTHEW MURPHY FOR MURPHYMADE Company at the Benedum Center

MUSIC • DOWNTOWN

JazzLive presents Winston and Poogie Bell. 7 p.m. Greer Cabaret Theater. 655 Penn Ave., Downtown. $30. trustarts.org

FILM • OAKMONT

Locust Street Media presents CICADA: A Night of Pittsburgh Premieres 8 p.m. Doors at 6:30 p.m. The Oaks Theater. 310 Allegheny River Blvd., Oakmont. $10. theoakstheater.com

MUSIC • HIGHLAND PARK

Zombi with Overcalc, Vicious Blade, Alamoans, Whale Fur, and Funeral Parade of Roses. 9 p.m. Doors at 8 p.m. Certain Death II. 7775 Lock Way E, Highland Park. $15 in advance, $20 at the door. 18 and over. facebook.com/tcrpsprsnts

SUN., APRIL 14

MARKET • WILKINSBURG

Spring Plant Sale and Indie Mart. 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Workshop PGH. 321 Pennwood Ave., Wilkinsburg. Free. workshoppgh.com

THUR.,

MON., APRIL 15

FESTIVAL • OAKLAND

Youth Climate Advocacy Committee presents the Youth Eco-Action Showcase. 6-8 p.m. Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens. One Schenley Park, Oakland. Free. Registration required. All ages. phipps.conservatory.org

TUE., APRIL 16

THEATER • DOWNTOWN

PNC Broadway in Pittsburgh presents a 21st-century update on the Tony-awardwinning musical Company. Originally conceived in 1970 by Stephen Sondheim and George Furth, the new version finds its cast of New Yorkers dealing with relationships and flips the gender of its protagonist from a bachelor to a bachelorette. Musical theater fans can see this modern take at the Benedum Center. 7:30 p.m. Continues through Sun., April 21. Seventh St. and Penn Ave., Downtown. $38-104. trustarts.org

MUSIC • DOWNTOWN

An Evening with Shawn Colvin and KT Tunstall Together on Stage 7:30 p.m. Byham Theater. 101 Sixth St., Downtown. $45-75. trustarts.org

WED., APRIL 17

LIT

• OAKLAND

ALSC 2024 Children’s Literature Lecture featuring Rita Williams-Garcia: A Funny Thing About Memory 7-8 p.m. Carnegie Library Lecture Hall. 4400 Forbes Ave., Oakland. Free. Registration required. carnegielibrary.org

PHOTO: COURTESY OF MUBI Dawn of the Dead 45th Anniversary Tour

HELP WANTED DIR OF RESEARCH ANALYTICS

Pittsburgh, PA. Lead dvlpmt of Pitt Research Discovery Tool. Propose & implmt data solutions to inform & support strategic efforts. Oversee maint/ enhncmt of research data pipeline. Spvs/mentor data team of Sr. Vice Chancellor for Research. Apply online w/University of Pittsburgh at https://www.join.pitt.edu/

• Replace Fire Alarm System

• Electrical Primes

A.M. and 4:00 P.M. The cost of the Project Manual Documents is non-refundable. Project details and dates are described in each project manual. Sealed proposals shall be deposited at the Administration Building, Bellefield Entrance Lobby, 341 South Bellefield Avenue,

ESTATE NOTICE

ESTATE OF JACKSON, DIAN P. DECEASED OF PITTSBURGH, PA

Dian P Jackson a/k/a

Dian Pearl Jackson, deceased, of Pittsburgh, PA. No. 022306582 of 2023. Danielle Durham, Ext. 14112 Rectory Lane, Upper Marlboro, MD 20772.

ESTATE NOTICE

ESTATE OF MANSO, BEATRICE

C. DECEASED OF WEST MIFFLIN, PA

Beatrice C. Manso a/k/a Beatrice DeBoth a/k/a Beatrice DeBoth

Manso a/k/a Beatrice

Manso, deceased, of West Mifflin, PA. No. 022401239 of 2024.

Joseph M. DeBoth, Ext. 16501 Lucky Bell Lane, Chagrin Falls, OH 44023. Or to John A. Coming, Esq., Steadman Law Office, P.C. 24 Main St. East, P.O. Box 87, Girard, PA 16417.

ESTATE NOTICE ESTATE OF HESS, JANET L. DECEASED OF BRIDGEVILLE, PA

Janet Lynn Hess, deceased, of Bridgeville, PA. No. 022401201 of 2024. Harold E. Hess, Ext. 235 Linda Vista Rd. Sewickley, PA 15143. ESTATE NOTICE NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that Letters of Administration in the Estate of Thomas J. McGarvey, late of the Township of Upper St. Clair, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, who died on November 13, 2017, have been granted to Jean McGarvey, Administratrix. All persons indebted to said Estate are requested to make payment and those having claims or demands are requested to present the same without delay to:

David E. Schwager, Esquire 183 Market Street Suite 100 Kingston, PA 187045444

TRACK MEETS

BY BRENDAN EMMETT QUIGLEY // BRENDANEMMETTQUIGLEY.COM

ACROSS

50. Big name in jewelry

51. HR department letters

52. Central Dallas sites?

53. King Charles often goes there

55. Radice cubica di nove

56. Season accomplishment

58. Climber’s tool

59. Where you might 61-Across

60. Famed street in Memphis

61. Pull back after pedaling, say

63. Approved on socials, say

64. Animal that left a track in the southern area

65. They have drill bits: Abbr.

66. Hydrocarbon suffixes

67. Eyelid lump

68. Generations

DOWN

1. “That’s final”

2. Part of high society?

3. “To reiterate...”

4. Baby or pinky type

Calhoun ___

35. Formatted

36. Handle with skill

37. Roof garden containers

38. NYC’s Penn, for one

39. Quiver with fear

40. Push rudely

41. Stay up

44. Collectors collection?

45. Weapon of home destruction?

46. Madison Avenue people

49. Get out of hand

50. “It’s not a ___”

54. Tone of a saint’s robe, in Varanasi

57. Pub beverages

58. Verse-tile person?

61. Arthur shower

62. Shivaji’s reign, e.g.

MESSIANIC FAITH

Messianic Faith is/will be an assembly worshiping the Father (YHWH) and Messiah Yeshuatekani. “LORD” is not the name of the Father. It is the Tetragrammaton name “YHWH”. “God” is a pagan title sourced in Indo Germanic culture from “Ghodh” which means “union” even “Sexual Union”. Correct translation should be “Elohim” which means “Strong One(s)”. “Christ” is sourced in paganism most likely the Hindo Deity “Krishna”. Christ should be replaced by Messiah. It’s meaning is “Anointed”. “Holy” is from the pagan source “Heil” and should be translated as “Set-Apart” or “separate”. The Messiah is a female. Here are some proof analyses. (Genesis 1:26-27) ”And Elohim said, let us make man in our image after our likeness. So Elohim created man in their own image, in the image of Elohim: he created them: male and female. The Bible tells us that when a man marries a woman, they become One. Yeshuatekani claimed she was ‘One” with the Father. The Father is the male and the Messiah is the female.

There are two end time prophecies “The Rose Prophecy (Isaiah 35)” and “The Lily Prophecy (Hosea 14) ” Both flowers rejuvenate the desert and are symbols of the Messiah. The Song of Songs is a song of two lovers-the male is Father YHWH and Yeshuatekani Messiah is the female. In the Song the Messiah claims both flower prophecies by stating her name “I am the Rose of Sharon and the Lily of the Valley”. The Song continues with the Lily being among thorns pointing to the Messiah being crowned by thorns at the impalement. She is called “perfect” and “without blemish”. She is twice shown to be on the right side of the Father. She is linked to David and She has a flock of perfect sheep that bear twins and none is lost symbolizing Her as a Shepherdess, There are verses for the Resurrection, Ascension, Second Coming and Judgment. The watchmen struck and bruised Her and lifted Her veil like at the day of Her impalement on a Stake. The Father also ignores Her advances pointing to Her cry “My El, My El why have you forsaken me.” Doves symbolizing the Set-Apart Spirit are used six times. The Two flower prophecies and Solomon’s Song are enough to establish the Messiah as a female.

The Messiah said that Her wisdom was greater than Solomons. In Proverbs wisdom is personified by a woman who tells us She is our sister. Rachel was a shepherdess whose name prophesizes the Messiah. Her name Rachel means “To journey as an ewe (female lamb} that is a good traveler. Psalm 22 is a prophecy of the impalement. It is titled “The Doe of the Morning or Hind of the Morning”. Both the Doe and Hind are female deer. In the psalm She says “I am a worm and no man”. The word “paps” is used three times in the Messianic Scriptures each representing female breasts. In Revelation the Messiah’s breasts are being girdled with a golden band.

The sin offering was a female lamb. Yeshuatekani is the female lamb forgiving sin. The Messiah’s mother Miryam was impregnated by the Set-apart Spirit. No semen was present so she could not get the “Y” chromosome needed to have a male child. The only chromosomes she had were two “X”s so she was only able to have a daughter. Judas Iscariot received 30 shekels for turning in the Messiah. The 30 shekels was based on an agreement with the high priest to pay him based on a vow which paid 30 Shekels for a female 20 to 60 years. A male received 50 Shekels. One of the taught ones leaned on Yeshuatekani’s chest in front of the taught one’s. This same taught one was one that Yeshuatekani loved. The Messiah was called “Rabboni” twice-Is Rabboni indicative of a female Rabbi? There also instances where wearing a veil could be inferred.

The Appointed Sabbaths – Weekly Sabbath, New Moon, Passover, The Feast of Unleavened Bread. Feast of First Fruits, Feast of Weeks, The Feast of Trumpets, The Day of Atonement, The Feast of Booths, Eighth Day. In addition two Feasts Hannukah and Purim are celebrated.

The Man of Lawlessness: Is a man who breaks the Ten Commandments on a continual basis and defies the lessons taught by Yeshuatekani. The pope is responsible for combining the 1st and 2nd Commandment hiding the “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I YHWH thy Elohim am a jealous Elohim, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments”. This has allowed people to build statues and pray to them. The pope celebrates the Sabbath Day on the 1st day of the week, This is a major violation of the 4th commandment and is also the Mark of the Beast. Yeshuatekani said “No one is to be called Father because your only Father is in heaven. Pope is derived from Papa which means Father. All priests reporting to the pope call themselves “Father” in total defiance to Yeshuatekani’s command. The Vatican has elevated Miryam to heaven calling here The Queen of Heaven. Our Father sent apparitions of Miryam because he was fed up with the idolatry she was getting. Millions converted and some of the largest shrines to Miryam were created. The pope allows and encourages prayer to Miryam including “the Rosary” which includes babbling of repetitious prayer. Yeshuatekani taught us to pray to the Father but the pope allows his followers to pray to Miryam and the Saints.

The Sabbath is a sign between us and YHWH, it is blessed and set-apart. The Mark/Sign of the Beast is the Sunday Sabbath. The Image of the Beast is Miryam and/or Jesus. The Name of the Beast is Sunday Christianity. The Number of the Beast is 666 the pope. The Second Coming is sometime before May 15, 2028. Contact davidbrand628@gmail.com Website www.yhwhyeshuatekani.com