Erie’s only free, independent source July 10 - 23, 2013 / Vol 3, No. 13 / ErieReader.com for news, culture, and entertainment E I R E READER The Story Behind Erie's Homegrown Music Festival Jeremy Galante / GE and the Union Negotiations / Erie Summer Music Series The Future of Fiber Optics in Erie / Regional Center for Workforce Excellence Audits Jazz & Blues Walk / Roar on the Shore / Erie Summer Festival of the Arts / The Bad Haircut Shakey Graves / The Great Blue Heron Music Festival / Pineapple Eddie's Reviewed FREE 2 | Erie Reader | eriereader.com July 10, 2013 CONTENT July 10, 2013 editors-in-chief: Brian Graham & Adam Welsh Managing editor: Ben Speggen FEATURE CULTURE contributing editors: Cory Vaillancourt 9 The gaThering 7 fOOD reVieW Jay Stevens Pineapple Eddie's copy editor: aT chaffee's Alex Bieler The Story Behind Erie's Home- 12 if We Were YOU... contributors: grown Music Festival Alex Bieler Here’s what we would do Pen Ealain Matthew Flowers 4 14 TO-DO LisT Leslie McAllister NEWS AND NOTES Rich McCarty UPfrOnT Roar on the Shore, Jazz & Blues Walk, Ryan Smith Erie Summer Festival of the Arts Jay Stevens 5 Manufacturing Fun Rebecca Styn MUsic Bryan Toy sTreeT cOrner sOaPBOX 15 Designer: 6 GE Union Negotiations Reach Album Reviews, Shakey Graves, Great Blue Mark Kosobucki Heron Festival Burim Loshaj the End of the Line cover Design: 6 The WaY i see iT Burim Loshaj 19 TheaTer PreVieW Photographer: Regional Center for Workforce Ryan Smith "The Bad Haircut: Excellence Audits Jessica Yochim A Disconnected Comedy" interns: Tech WaTch Adam Kelly YOU OUghT to Know Ryan Maloney Exploring the Future of Erie's Fiber Optics Jeremy Galante Tom Shannon Adam Unger 32 W. Eighth St. #500 Erie PA, 16501 [email protected] residents, but new businesses and Beyond that, we have the Perry residents? 200 Commemoration pressing on- The Erie Reader is Erie’s only free , From the Editors We’re blue-collar at heart, and our ward, sponsoring the Erie Summer independent source for news, culture, and history is thick with tales of how we Festival of the Arts — one third of entertainment. The Erie Reader is a forum y now it shouldn’t come as heads (maybe putting all of our eco- made things. Created things. Used Alex Bieler’s To-do List in this is- for ideas and discussion, and seeks to drive a surprise that the nego- nomic eggs in one basket ain’t such a our hands. Manufactured. sue. There, you’ll also find the Jazz & two-way communication with its readers. At tiations between GE and hot idea since we’re standing in the In fact, we still are manufacturing. Blues Walk and Roar on the Shore the Erie Reader, we endeavor to highlight the union workers have come summer sun with yolk on our face), This issue marks the return of Up- — two events that couldn’t seem best of Erie by providing in-depth, magazine- to the end of the line in Erie and many of us react with our hearts, front, and in this issue, Cory Vail- more opposite in crowd but share style journalism that cuts to the heart of the it’s time for 900 people to get off seeing this as a drawn-out, bitter lancourt talks about manufacturing solidary in purpose: Manufacturing issues that matter to Erie. The Erie Reader B the train and make room for some breakup (how could GE, the busi- in Erie, and as it turns out, we’re Fun in the Gem City. is published every other week at The Corry riders destined for southern tracks. ness we’ve been courting for so long manufacturing fun. From 8 Great The desire to create is strong in Journal, 28 W. South St., Corry, Pa. 16407. The Although it may not have been up and leave us for another city? Tuesdays to Block Parties to the Erie. Take for instance Richard Bo- Erie Reader is distributed at over 250 high foot-traffic locations in Pennsylvania from perfectly clear, the writing on the What can Fort Worth, Texas give Romolo Chocolates Summer Music ler, who penned an original play de- North East to Girard to Edinboro. The Erie wall has been legible. And instead GE that we haven’t been giving for Series, Erie creates event after event, buting at Renaissance Theatre. Take Reader is also available by mail subscription; of reading it, many choose to bury so long?). to the point it becomes hard to take restaurants like Pineapple Eddie’s, one year (26 issues) for $49.99. Send check or their heads in the sand — or as B. But that’s business. And what a night off from all the events. serving as reprieves from the pox money order payable to Flagship Multimedia, Toy illustrates, cry “No fair” — only GE’s doing is smart — for GE. And some Erie folks have been of cookie-cutter restaurants dishing Inc., to the address below. In addition to to awaken to a rapidly changing in- Business is about the bottom line, manufacturing fun for over three out nothing more than frozen mi- appearing in print, Erie Reader adds new dustrial landscape. and if remaining in Erie isn’t meet- decades. What began as a small crowavable dinners. content daily at www.ErieReader.com as And they blame GE. ing it, a business has every right to gathering of friends has grown to In Erie, it’s in our nature — our his- well social media sites. All rights reserved. But as Jay Stevens writes in his uproot and plant elsewhere, while an Erie summer mainstay, and Doug tory — to create. And as long as we All content © Flagship Multimedia, Inc, 32 W. Street Corner Soapbox this issue: we remain stuck somewhere in the Chaffee is keeping the party, the have people like Doug Chaffee and Eighth St., Suite 500, Erie, Pa, 16501. No part “GE’s long-term interests are not first four stages of the Kubler-Ross legacy of The Gathering at Chaffee’s events like The Gathering we will of this publication may be reproduced without the same as Erie’s... In fact, it’s likely model. going strong. Matthew Flowers always have a shot at a bright future, permission. Direct inquiries to 814.314.9364 GE will some day move all of its And we can’t afford to be reactive. writes the comprehensive, inside regardless of which trains stop here or [email protected]. Erie operations out of state... We need to be proactive. And per- story on how The Gathering came or simply pass on through. Because “That,” Jay writes, “is how GE op- haps the first step is asking ourselves: to be, its evolution, and how Doug is as businesses come and go, we remain erates.” What are we doing to make Erie not using the festival as a chance to give rooted to this city, and our future is And rather than reacting with our only attractive to businesses and back to those in need. what we decide to make of it. July 10, 2013 eriereader.com | Erie Reader | 3 UPFRONT NEws Manufacturing Fun of the By: Cory Vaillancourt WeiRd rie is still a manufacturing town at By: Chuck Shepherd heart – despite the nonsensical imagin- ings of the Wally World crowd – and free outdoor music is the fuel firing the ovens that those rusty blue collars still congregate Sieging Cheaters Earound. In the winter, sans fuel, their chief output is clinical depression – but in the summer, fully s many as 50 exam monitors were forced fueled, their chief output is fun. to take cover at a high school in Zhongx- Now, winter appears to be over, but Erie’s sum- iang,A China, in June, fending off outraged stu- mer season is off to a soggy start. I think every dents (and some parents) who hurled insults single Block Party so far has been a wet one, and stones at them after the monitors blocked and the Crawford County Music Festival was cheating schemes on the all-important national also subject to the fickle whims of an uncaring "gaokao" exams. (It was "siege warfare," and atmosphere – so much so that the much-beloved eventually "hundreds" of police responded, ac- fete at Sprague’s Farm and Brew Works could cording to a dispatch in the Daily Telegraph have been renamed the “Crawford County Muck of London.) Metal detectors had found secret Festival.” In fact, it rained so much in June that transmitters and contraband cellphones used by those really tan Erieites you see walking down groups beaming in exam answers from outside. the street aren’t really tan – they’re just covered in Independent proctors had been assigned because a light coating of rust. Or mud. of longstanding suspicions that the schools' own However, with a string of cloudless low-80s El Frijole proctors routinely enabled cheating (with results days and high-70s nights rapidly approach- such as the 99 identical papers submitted in one ing, things seem to be clearing up – and just in subject on the previous year's exam). Said one time, too, because this is the part of the year that student (in the mob of about 2,000), noting how Erie really puts the pedal to the metal and starts Erie knows how to crank out the summer fun. widespread cheating is nationally, "There is no grindin’ her gears. One of Erie’s favorite things fairness if you do not let us cheat (also)." [Daily to do in the summer – the 8 Great Tuesdays Telegraph (London), 6-20-2013] music series at the Burger King Amphitheater town, as much for the location as the quality of ning – or rather, broadening – the spectrum of in Liberty Park – lurched off the starting line artistry EAM Executive Director John Vanco jazz in Erie.