South Side Adventure

Today I did a bit of roaming about my hill side. First thing first i needed to head to the flats for the local magic shop. This involved heading down St. Martin St. Like many of the street in my neck of the woods this one is a set of stairs. Very hard on cars. Still, pediestrians are reletively safe on them.
This picture is a bridge over the rail road tracks. The old Polish School is in the upper right of the picture. It is odd that on some point in the walk is is hard to see building.

This is the Cuckoos Nest or just the Nest as it is sometimes called. They have launched the hopes and dreams of hundred of local would be magicians. As a youth I would spend the occasional Saturday looking for tips and trick from people more sagged than me. In the clown word this is sort of like the Local Yarn Shop. The only difference is that there are more men and less gossip.
After the flats was a brief trip out of the City. This brought me to Mt. Oliver a small town entirely surrounded by Pittsburgh.
It was lunch time so that meant Gyro time. I took the time to work on one of my books while I was eating.
Next was the Keystone. This is an odd little plumbing supply and dollar store type place. I go in there from time to time to look for stuff that might be useful. In the past I have used a lot of PVC pipe from them. We are looking to build a very large puppet stage so this is a good bet we are going to need some pipe.
They didn't have what i thought I was looking for. Still, they had something I did not know that I was looking for. Namely this butterfly net. We needed another prop to chase someone around with during the show. This is different from the other two props and will fit in just right.
Well time to head back home. This is a cute white dog that like in my neighborhood. She is always wearing some sort of pink clothes. So I am assuming she is a girl. If she isn't I am not getting into it.

Well be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

Picking Walt's Nose & Building Stuff.

Today was a fun day. It was an important day for Walt. Today he went to the Magic Shop and picked his clown nose. He picked out a purple nose. Good times.

After the nose picking it was time for building clown stuff. Today we were working on several things a puppet stage ans scenery for the upcoming shows.

The most complicated thing we were working on is the puppet stage. It must be free standing and has to stand up to being moved around a great deal. We will be using it not only inside but outside at parks as well.

Being that we do not have much money we are going to have to get several years of use out of this thing as well.

Anyway Walt is working on some scenery on the scroll saw there. Part of the scenery is going to be a series of columns. These will give the illusion that one is on the main deck of a river boat. There are going to be back drops and other things.

The columns are going to be set up a quarter of the way from the back of the stage. That will make it look like the clowns are coming in and out of the deck on the ship.

In this picture I am assembling the Puppet stage. So that it is light enough to be moved around it is made from three sheets of thin ply wood. The from is reinforced with 2x2 and the side by 1x2s. The thing is then stuck together with four bolts and wing nuts.

I have built a couple of these in the past. They are very vestal and have served me well in the past.

Down bellow is a picture of the three sides assembled. As you will notice there is a big open space. And if you look at either side you can see into the stage easily. There is a half circle bar and a curtain the covers up the rest of the open space. After we get it put painted and install the curtain it will look more complete.

Not having all that wood is an advantage of this thing. And have the window up to high the puppeteer is able to sit down inside the stage.

Well be safe out there everyone and keep your stick on the ice.