5 things we love

Perk it up

Pittsburgh is filled with funky coffee shops, but there’s nothing like Biddle’s Escape in Wilkinsburg: It’s part art gallery, part writers workshop, part bead emporium, part game room and part gathering spot with a passionate following. Great coffee, too. Its dogfriendly patio is a great space in warm weather (401 Biddle Ave.).

For the record

Music critic Scott Mervis took to Facebook last week to tell his followers: “How cool is Michael Seamans from Mind Cure Records [3138 Dobson St., second floor, Polish Hill] that he makes a video promoting OTHER shops on Record Store Day ... Sound Cat Records, Jerry’s Records, Dave’s Music Mine, The Attic, Desolation Row. He really should have his own TV show because he’s like the Mister Rogers of punk.” Check out his YouTube video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhHBWlbkzMg.

Meryl Streep waves her magic wand . . .

Hollywood royalty as an actress, Meryl Streep now wants to make sure women’s voices are heard more from page to screen and has funded a screenwriters lab for women writers over 40, to be run by New York Women in Film and Television and IRIS, a collective of women filmmakers. According to Variety, this year the initiative will accept submissions May 1-June 1, with eight winning writers named on Aug. 1. Entry info and more: www.nywift.org.

Safe travels

To bestow a “safe year of cycling,” pastors at a couple of local churches on Sunday are blessing bicycles (and their riders): Allegheny Unitarian Universalist Church, 416 W. North Ave., North Side, at 11:45 a.m.; and Waverly Presbyterian Church, 590 S. Braddock Ave., Regent Square, at 1:30 p.m.

Easy listening

Some books are narrated by stars for listeners, others are narrated by stars of the audiobook world. Take, for example, this year’s Pulitzer Prize winner for fiction, “All the Light We Cannot See” by Anthony Doerr, also nominated for an Audie Award for the audiobook narrated by Zach Appelman (S. & S. Audio).