Johnstown Night Life

While the AAABA League regular season is coming to a close, the four playoff teams have already been decided.

But determining the seeding might come down to the wire.

The top-two teams, Delweld and Martella’s Pharmacy, are in a heated race to be the top dog. Martella’s (29-10) is one game behind Delweld (30-9).

There also is an intriguing battle for the third and fourth seeds between Principle Development and the Berkley Hills Renegades, as both teams have been turning it on as the season is coming to a close. Read the rest of this entry »

By Rebecca Luprek

JNL Blogger

This summer has been an almost freakishly busy summer. The days have been going by so quickly with work and holidays, and it was not until I was reading through the past blogs that I noticed how long it has been since my last post. As I was looking through them and thinking of other things to write about I realized that there was one place that I had, surprisingly, not written about yet. This place is perfect for any person of any age to enjoy on a balmy summer  night. It is the Silver Drive In.

The Silver Drive In (located along Scalp Avenue in Richland), which was reopened in 2005, has been apart of this area for many years. It has provided such a unique form of entertainment and has preserved a piece of history from the Johnstown area. For quite a few years people have been piling into cars, trucks, and vans, bundling into blankets, and sitting on lawn chairs under starry skies to watch movies on the huge screen. I can remember times when I was a little girl of seeing movies with friends and families, and enjoying a time that was very special.

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By Rebecca Luprek

JNL Blogger

Ah the movie theater! We have all probably been to one at least once in our lives. There is something really quite unique about the movie theater. The thrill of expectation from the people in line, to the warm buttery smell of the popcorn, to even the musty smell of the theater itself. Every part of it is a wonderful experience. This was an experience that I was able to enjoy, once again, this evening at the Richland Cinemas (Located in Richland near the WalMart plaza).

I and a few friends of mine decided to go to the opening night showing of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, and the experience was everything that I remembered from past movies. There was that buzz of excitement as we waited in the lobby for the seating to begin, and there was as always that tempting smell coming from the concession across the lobby. This was definitely an exciting night for everyone present.
Once the seating began there was a slight rush, but it was altogether quite fun. The showing which my friends and I went to,  allowed us to be seated in one of the stadium seating theaters, and there was plenty of room for every viewer. It never seems to get old, that slight burst of energy as everyone present tries to find the absolute best seats in the room, and as they try to remember to get enough of them for all their friends and family!
Then, as usual, it begins with the previews and the reminder to go the concession stand for treats. Now the previews are usually interesting to watch, but it seems to me that the rather…quaint concession stand reminders always have people chuckling.
And finally after all of the anticipation and the waiting the movie begins…

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By Brandan Hartland

JNL Blogger

This Stanley Cup championship could not have come at a more glorious time for the Pittsburgh Penguins. It’s only fitting that the banner will be raised in Mellon Arena’s last season.

A banner that will read: 2008-2009 Stanley Cup Champions.

And then, two years from now, when you are watching the Pens play in the new Consol Energy Center, you will look to the rafters. And that championship banner will still be there.

Then 15 years from now, when you take your kids to a Penguin game, that banner will still be there. Read the rest of this entry »

By Brandan Hartland

JNL Blogger

After the Penguins’ thrilling Game Six win over the Wings, I, along with many other fans, have been counting down the minutes until the puck drops tomorrow night.

The 2009 Stanley Cup Finals will come down to just one game in Detroit on Friday, and it’s the one game that every hockey player spends a lifetime dreaming about playing in.

The pundits will say the Pens are in for an uphill battle even before the puck is dropped for Game Seven. Read the rest of this entry »

By Brandan Hartland

JNL Blogger

Many people wrote off the Pittsburgh Penguins after their embarrassing 5-0 loss to the Detroit Red Wings in Game Five, after Marc-Andre Fleury was yanked in the second period and the Wings were able to contain Pittsburgh’s two-headed monster, Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. Hockey “experts” were already crowing the Red Wings as Stanley Cup champs. Detroit fans began relishing in the thought of seeing their team parade around the Mellon Arena after Game Six hoisting Lord Stanley’s Cup, just like last season.

The last time I checked it took 16 postseason victories to win the Cup, not 15.

The Penguins knew that too, as they jumped out of the gate and displayed one of the best shutdown performances in recent memory. Read the rest of this entry »

By Rebecca Luprek

JNL Blogger

There seems to be a lot of reality TV shows out today, including quite a few about dancing. Whenever I saw the dance show I have to admit that I was quickly addicted to the fun atmosphere. I loved the glitter, the glamour, and of course the fancy footwork. I actually enjoyed watching them so much that I began to wonder where in the Johnstown area could I learn to do ballroom dancing. I started looking around and, coincidentally, found a studio through my brother and his wife who were taking dance lessons for their wedding dance.

As I started taking dance lessons at Sherry Lynn’s Ballroom Dance Center (646 Main Street in downtown Johnstown) I really began to enjoy the atmosphere of the dance studio. The instructors, Sherry Lynn and her husband Brian, were incredibly nice when I started, and the lessons were absolutely amazing! With each lesson I was learning I was able to meet more people, I was having a lot of fun, and I felt I was improving my physical health.

Then I found out about their Friday night dance parties!

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By Brandan Hartland

JNL Blogger

If we had to lose Game Five, I’ll take this one over a 3-2 triple overtime loss.

There isn’t a whole lot to say about Pittsburgh’s 5-0 loss to Detroit on Saturday. All I can say is that we looked like the Flyers out there tonight. We took undisciplined penalties, took cheap shots on players when we were behind, tried to instigate fights to no avail, and everyone in a Penguins uniform appeared out of control and off their game.

Pavel Datsyuk returned to Detroit’s lineup for the first time this series and he was, well, Pavel Datsyuk. The All-Star center recorded a couple of assists and even laid out Evgeni Malkin with a strong check early in the contest.

The Pens had a lot of jump in their step for the first 10 minutes of the game. After that, it was all down hill. Detroit had the Penguins back on their heels and kept pushing. What Pittsburgh needed to do was push back offensively. What they actually did was push back verbally and tried slashing the hideous red beards of the Wings’ players off with our sticks. Read the rest of this entry »

Rebecca Luprek
JNL Blogger

Ah summertime! This time of year becomes such an exciting and unbelievably busy time for most people. From newly graduated high school students preparing for their college enrollment, to family vacations and trips, to the young adults searching for summer jobs everyone is busily engaged in some activity or another. But what do all of these people do during their free time? What, or where, is the best place to enjoy some stress free entertainment? Since I started blogging for Johnstown Nightlife I was wondering where I could go to find some  answers, of a sort, to these questions.

So this past week, whenever I had the opportunity between work and life in general, I asked around town where people like to hang out and spend time. There were quite a lot of varied answers. The Galleria mall was a majority answer, and the Richland Cinemas was too. But there was one place that a friend of mine suggested to me that really intrigued me…709 Railroad Street. From my friends description it seemed like a very ‘cool’ place to hang out at, especially if a person were interested in music. So I decided to check to see if they had a web page, and I found out that they were so much more then just a ‘cool’ hang out. In fact according to their web page, which I found looking through the website Facebook,  it is a gallery and performance space located at 709 Railroad Street in Johnstown.

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By Brandan Hartland

JNL Blogger

Those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

That being said, something big needed to happen to the Pittsburgh Penguins because it felt like last years Stanley Cup Finals was happening all over again. The Detroit Red Wings were one win away from putting a lock on the series. A win in Game Four for the Wings would have given them a chance to win the Cup at home ice, where they are 10-1 in the 2009 postseason.

But the Penguins’ star players came to the rink to play and put on a show for the crowd at Mellon Arena that put them in a frenzy. Marc-Andre Fleury was brilliant for the second straight game. As the Finals move forward, MAF has looked better every game. Can’t say the same for his counterpart. Evgeni Malkin is playing in some other ethereal dimension where the rules that bind mortal hockey players do not apply. The league’s leading point scorer hasn’t missed a beat after being a dominant force in the regular season. Sidney Crosby scored the game-winning goal and was brilliant at both ends of the ice. Jordan Staal was excellent on the penalty kill and tallied a timely shorthanded goal that crushed the Wings’ momentum.

Kris Draper returned to the lineup for Detroit, one of the top face-off men in all of hockey, but the veteran center had just over eight minutes of ice time. He missed the last five games, three with a suspected groin injury and the last two as a healthy scratch, and took the place of Justin Abdelkader in the lineup. The Hart Trophy candidate Pavel Datsyuk was questionable to play in the game, but an injured foot kept him out the lineup for the seventh straight game. During the extended absence, Datsyuk admitted his way of combating the boredom of watching the games on TV is drinking lots of beer. Datsyuk took the pregame skate and decided he wanted nothing to do with Malkin. He opted to getting drunk in the press box instead.

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