Pittsburgh Post-Gazette profiles Joyce Bender and her advocacy for disabled workers in Korea.

Joyce Bender during an April visit to Daegu, via Newsis.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette profiles Joyce Bender, of Pittsburgh-based Bender Consulting Services, today and her recent work for disabled workers in South Korea.

Andy Warhol | Ai Weiwei at Warhol Museum, June 4 - August 28.

via ArrestedMotion and Ai Weiwei's Instagram.

The Andy Warhol Museum will host an exhibition on the influence of Andy Warhol and Ai Weiwei, titled Andy Warhol | Ai Weiwei, from June 4 through August 28.

Andy Warhol | Ai Weiwei, developed by The Warhol and the National Gallery of Victoria, with the participation of Ai Weiwei, explores the significant influence of these two artists on modern and contemporary life, focusing on the parallels, intersections, and points of difference between their practices—Warhol representing 20th-century modernity and the “American century,” and Ai representing life in the 21st century and what has been called the “Chinese century” to come.

At The Warhol, the exhibition creates a dialogue between the artists, throughout the seven floors of the building. Visitors experience more than 350 works in drawing, film, new media, photography, painting, sculpture, wallpapers, and publishing, including some of the major contributions by both artists, each of whom is as famous for his artistic persona as for the work he produced.

A traveling Ai exhibition, Circle of Animals / Zodiac Heads, is on display at the Carnegie Museum of Art through June 4.

The Warhol is located at 117 Sandusky St. on the Northside (map). It's open every day but Monday, and adult admission is $20.

The Secret World of Arrietty (借りぐらしのアリエッティ) at Row House Cinema, July 1 - 7.

The Row House Cinema will show the 2010 Studio Ghibli film The Secret World of Arrietty (借りぐらしのアリエッティ) from July 1 through July 7 as part of its Fantastical Adventures series.

Pittsburgh Bonsai Society Bonsai Show, June 4 and 5.

The 35th annual Bonsai Show will be held at Phipps Garden Center in Shadyside (map) on May 30 and 31. It's presented by the Pittsburgh Bonsai Society and is free and open to the public from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm on Saturday the 4th, and from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm on the 5th.

"Voices and sounds of Japan's extreme underground" on WRCT 88.3FM, May 27 at 10 pm.

via Flagitious Idiosyncrasy in the Dilapidation's Facebook page.

Matthew Ketchum, a Pittsburgher who lives and works in Tokyo and moonlights as an event planner for "Japan's extreme underground" music, will have a show broadcast on Carnegie Mellon University's WRCT 88.3 FM on May 27 at 10:00 pm. By way of introduction he writes on /r/pittsburgh today:

Pittsburgh's the best home town I could dream of, and the expansive and vibrant music underground over here in Japan is, in my humble opinion, second to none... So why not put them together?! This is kind of a dream come true, to be honest, but if you dig on black/doom/death/heavy metal or punk or whatever, and have always wondered what else Japan offers besides Coffins, Church of Misery, Merzbow, and Boris, tune in tomorrow night to hear from Makiko of Flagitious Idiosyncrasy in the Dilapidation, Tom of Retch, and, of course, me.

Ai Weiwei: Circle of Animals / Zodiac Heads at Carnegie Museum of Art, May 28 through August 4.

via AW Asia.

The Ai Weiwei installation Circle of Animals / Zodiac Heads will be on display at the Carnegie Museum of Art from May 28 through August 4, part of a world tour underway since 2010.

This summer, dissident artist Ai Weiwei’s monumental sculpture, Circle of Animals / Zodiac Heads adds a compelling new layer to CMOA’s magnificent Hall of Architecture. Comprising 12 bronze animal heads representing the traditional Chinese zodiac, Ai’s work reimagines those that once adorned the famed fountain-clock of Yuanming Yuan, an imperial retreat in Beijing destroyed by the British in 1860. It debuted on the world stage in 2011 shortly after the artist, an outspoken critic of the communist regime, had been detained by Chinese authorities and held for 80 days.

Circle of Animals / Zodiac Heads pays homage to China’s history while speaking to contemporary concerns. “It’s about the future and the past, and how China is looked at today and how it looks at itself,” explains the artist. “It has many, many different layers—is it art or not art, and to what degree?”

The expansive Hall of Architecture houses one of the few remaining cast collections in the world, filled with reproductions of classical facades and fragments from throughout the Western world. Likewise, Circle of Animals / Zodiac Heads reinterprets a cultural and political remnant of China’s past. Together they create a one-of-a-kind immersive experience that brings together past and present, and underscores how cultural histories are retold.

The museum is open from 10:00 am to 8:00 pm on Thursdays, and from 10:00 to 5:00 every other day but Tuesday. Admission is $19.95 for adults, though special student pricing is available.

Norwin School District to phase out Japanese program.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette wrote on Friday that the preliminary budget for Norwin School District in 2016-17 calls for the elimination of the middle school Japanese program and an eventual end to high school Japanese in the Westmoreland County school district.

A half-time Japanese language position also will be eliminated at the middle school, with the Japanese teacher continuing to teach classes at the high school, [high school principal Timothy Kotch] said.

Japanese 2, 3 and 4 will be offered at the high school in 2016-17, but the district plans to phase out the Japanese program, Mr. Kotch said.

Two Norwin High School students placed first and second in the Advanced Level of the 2016 High School Japanese Speech Contest held by the Japan-America Society of Pennsylvania in March 2016, with another student placing third in the Beginner Level. Norwin students have placed among the top three each year the contest has been held.

National Association of Asian American Professionals spring happy hour, and details of NAAAP Speaker Series, May 26 at Umami.

via Umami Pgh's Facebook page.

The Pittsburgh chapter of the National Association of Asian American Professionals will hold its spring happy hour on May 26 at Umami in Lawrenceville. The event is open to the public, with details available on Facebook. At the happy hour the group will, according to NAAAP Programming Director Steve Larosa,

reveal our plans for a speaker series featuring some of Pittsburgh's successful Asian American female entrepreneurs and innovators. Attendees to the event will have the opportunity to meet some of the speakers we will be featuring, and experience some of Roger Li's superb Japanese cuisine. We also plan to use this event to unveil our plans to start a NAAAP student chapter at the University of Pittsburgh in Fall, 2016.

From that point, once a month for the next five months we will host one of our speakers at a venue TBD. The speakers will be talking about their experiences in entrepreneurship, their successes, struggles and failures, what motivates them to do what they do, as well as answer questions from the audience. The networking event and the following speaker series are free for everyone to attend, and we are hoping this series will help us increase our presence in Pittsburgh, as well as give a friendly boost to our participating speakers.

Our confirmed speakers include: Jasmine Cho (yummyholic)
Priya Amin (Roki)
Nicki Zevola (FutureDerm inc.)

Umami is a newly-opened izakaya (Japanese pub) at 202 38th Street in Lawrenceville (map).

First look at Tan Izakaya menu.

Tan Izakaya, tentatively scheduled to open later this month at 815 S. Aiken St. in Shadyside (map), posted its menu to its Facebook page yesterday.



Tan Izakaya is a Japanese-style pub, the latest project from Mike Chen of Squirrel Hill's Everyday Noodles. We wrote about the new restaurant in January, and a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette profile followed.

Decor will be “very Japanese,” which will include wood accents and will highlight the bar — which makes sense, considering an izakaya is an after-work drinking place, he said. And the drinks he’ll highlight include many variations of sake.

Stocking a sake bar is a challenging task in terms of navigating the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board (PLCB). Since sake is not a popular beverage in Pittsburgh at the moment, he’s having to source from suppliers in Philadelphia and through special orders. Pan will also include amenities like sake storage.

“It’s common in Japan,” he said. “And it’s a great way to keep customers coming back.”

Chengdu Gourmet chef named a top chef by Pittsburgh Magazine; four Asian places make Best Restaurants list.

Pittsburgh Magazine today released a list of six of the city's top chefs "Outstanding in Their Field", a list that includes Wei Zhu of Chengdu Gourmet:

Wei Zhu, chef and owner of Chengdu Gourmet in Squirrel Hill, crafts an authentic taste of his homeland with his well-executed menu of classic dishes, but while adhering to tradition he’s forging his own style by looking to contemporary Chinese dining trends and international flavors. “The food here is my style, Wei Zhu’s style,” says Zhu, 49, a native of the city of Chengdu in China’s Sichuan province.

. . .

“At other Chinese restaurants, they just make the same dishes. I am always trying to keep updated on what chefs are doing in China,” he says.

An October 2015 piece in Pittsburgh Magazine profiles the restaurant and the chef in fuller detail.

The magazine today also named Chengdu Gourmet, Everyday Noodles (Squirrel Hill), Soba (Shadyside)and umi (Shadyside) to its Best Restaurants 2016 list. It writes that Chengdu Gourmet offers "the most adventurous meal you'll have in Pittsburgh".