There seems to be no shortage lately of local filmmaking contests. Just in time for the holidays, here's another one, from the Pittsburgh Jewish Film Forum. It carries a top prize of $10,000, and two $3,000 prizes too.

The forum -- which puts on the long-running J Film fesival -- this week announced a call for entries for The Robinson International Short Film Competition.

The contest is open to all independent filmmakers, including pros and collegiate and graduate-level film students. 

The entry criteria: The film must be a Pittsburgh premiere, have a running time of 40 minutes or less, and have been completed in 2009 or later. Entries can be narrative, documentary or animated, and -- here's the key and most subjective criteria -- "must contain an essence of Jewishness as represented by theme, history or culture."

The deadline is Jan. 31. You can find full details at jfilmpgh.org/page.aspx?id=249250.

As you may have heard, UPMC has agreed to extend its contract with Highmark until June 2013. That means Highmark subscribers will still be considered "in network" by UPMC physicians and facilities for at least another 18 months.

In a joint statement, the healthcare behemoths assert

Highmark and UPMC want to jointly announce that Highmark subscribers will continue to have access to UPMC hospitals and physicians at in-network rates until June 30, 2013. The additional time period will provide certainty for UPMC patients and Highmark subscribers. Discussion sessions have taken place with the assistance of Governor Corbett and via third party mediation.

Is that a sign that the tide has shifted against UPMC? That its executives are abandoning their take-no-prisoners approach? Or is the health-care giant simply playing for time?

Break out the champagne and the funny hats: Occupy Pittsburgh will remain on Mellon Green through New Year's.

Earlier this month, BNY Mellon -- which owns the Downtown parklet where Occupiers have been since Oct. 15 -- began legal proceedings to have the Occupation evicted. This morning, Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Christine Ward held a "status conference" -- an administrative meeting between the judge and attorneys in a case -- to set out a timeline for handling the dispute.

During the conference, attorneys agreed to hold a full hearing -- where arguments and testimony can be presented -- on Jan. 10 at 9:30 a.m. The Occupiers will be allowed to remain on the Green pending that hearing -- and perhaps after it.

Mellon is seeking a preliminary injunction to remove the protesters; such an injunction asks a judge to take immediate action pending a future ruling on the merits of a case. As such, a judge must feel that a plaintiff's case is very likely to succeed, and that the plaintiff will suffer irreparable harm if action is delayed until the legal process plays out. It would be possible, in other words, for Ward to deny the injunction, but ultimately rule in Mellon's favor after further legal action.

During today's conference, Ward noted for the record that she knew Daniel Booker, the Reed Smith attorney representing BNY Mellon, socially. She also acknowledged knowing Jules Lobel, the University of Pittsburgh law professor who is one of four attorneys representing Occupy Pittsburgh. (Oddly, Occupy's legal team outnumbered the two attorneys on hand for BNY Mellon.)

Ward, who typically handles highly complex commercial litigation, also addressed the courtroom at the end of the conference. She told attendees she was "aware of the passion that everyone has for their individual causes," but asserted that within the courtroom, respect for the law was the only passion she followed.

Outside the courtroom, on the Grant Street sidewalk before the City County Building, Occupiers struck a defiant note. During an impromptu picket, more than a dozen Occupiers circled the sidewalk, holding signs and chanting. "I don't know but I been told, Mellon Bank ain't got no soul," one chant began.

"The same banks that would like to remove Occupy Pittsburgh are pushing good families from their homes," Occupier Celeste Taylor told and ensuing press conference and rally.

"We're here to tell BNY Mellon that you can't evict an idea," added Jeff Cech. "We're not going anywhere."

Not everyone was impressed. "Get a job!" shouted a passing motorist.

"Got two!" a demonstrator shouted back.

Mike Healey, one of the attorneys representing Occupy, said that there had been no discussions with Mellon about settling the dispute out of court.

Last week I told you about New Shouts' new holiday song for charity. Now, as Hanukkah begins and Christmas draws nigh, I have a couple other suggestions for you:

— Before it's too late: Nina Sainato's new Christmas album is on sale right now on Bandcamp; enter the code "holiday" and get 20 percent off. I reviewed the album a couple weeks ago; I think if you're into Christmas music, you'll find something you like on it.

— Also before it's too late: Give the guys in Yours Truly a special gift by helping to fund their next album. There's three days left on their Kickstarter campaign to bankroll their new record, and they're two-thirds of the way there. The bonus: There's pie-throwing involved.

— While we're on the topic: Why not consider the gift of local music this year? We had stellar new releases from tons of Pittsburgh bands and artists — 1,2,3; Black Crash; Donora; Boca Chica; Summer-Winter; Slim Forsythe; White Wives; Mac Miller; Jasiri X. A lot of these records are available at local retailers like Paul's CDs in Bloomfield, Desolation Row (Caliban Books) in Oakland and Mind Cure Records in Polish Hill; others can be downloaded on Bandcamp or iTunes, and you can, like, put them on a flash drive and throw them all in your nephew's stocking at once or whatever.

Was a time when I saw The Channel play at the William Pitt Union, back when we were all freshmen or sophomores or whatever. Then The Channel had to change their name to We're Wolves, and I saw them play at House Cindy, which was their house in South Oakland. Then they had to change their name again, to More Humans.

Now they live back in the D.C. area but, amazingly, are still playing together, and continuing to make more and more great music. Or, more greater music. Or, the most greatest music. Whatever. Point is, they have a new video, and I'm going to share it with you here, to make your afternoon more happier! Look there's a ghost!

Mason-Dixon by More Humans from NIGHTTIDE on Vimeo.

Pre-holiday greetings!

As happens (pretty much) every week, I've got a new MP3 for you from a local artist. This week it's hip-hop duo SolSis, whom we introduced you to in Local Beat a few weeks back. The track we've got for you is called "Can't Let a Day Go By" (produced by Omar-Abdul Lawrence). Once you stream or download it below, you should also visit their SoundCloud page, where you can follow them and be informed when new tracks are posted.

***Download link expired***

Earlier this year, men's magazine GQ named Pittsburgh the third worst-dressed city in the nation. Fighting to overturn our reputation for oversized hoodies and tube socks are East End Fashion Magazine's Abby Gleason and Cassie Kay Rusnak, who began the online publication last spring.

"The title is more of a general term," Gleason told CP by phone from a Garfield coffee shop. "We want to reflect each neighborhood's uniqueness; Lawrenceville's boutiques, Shadyside's consignment."

Gleason, 28, and Rusnak, 21, became friends last summer via multimedia dance company The Pillow Project. Rusnak photographed a performance in which Gleason was a model and dancer. That quickly led to the online forum melding their mutual love for fashion, photography and their native city.

The two grew up in the South Hills and now reside in Friendship. Like many creative professionals, they have day jobs: Gleason is a freelance web designer, and Rusnak a media consultant for a locally based non-profit, the Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights. They meet in the evenings at local coffee shops to discuss upcoming issues. 

The magazine (eastendfashionmagazine.com) currently functions with volunteer efforts by local writers, models and photographers. Sponsorship is exclusively local and the pair are always seeking like-minded, local contributors and collaborators. Each monthly issue features one or two narrative-driven photo spreads — shot by Rusnak — in addition to columns about menswear and reader-powered surveys. 

December's issue features the first installment of Rusnak's column about the industry's ecological impact. The piece about clothes recycling came just after she and Gleason successfully completed their first clothing swap, in November at Construction Junction. The event drew close to 90 visitors. 

"These are concerns that we wanted to represent," Rusnak says. "It's about fashion, but it's also about sourcing local goods and spending less money in any number of city thrift stores." 

Gleason agreed that if asked to choose one defining style for Pittsburgh, it would be vintage. "I don't know if it's geography or preference, but this city isn't big on strip-mall shopping. People gravitate to local boutiques and consignment stores and we want to represent that local mentality with the magazine." 

Since the inaugural issue, released this past April, EEFM continues to expand by incorporating local artists, writers and musicians into their coverage.

The duo are planning an anniversary fashion show for April, ostensibly based on Pittsburgh fashion by each neighborhood. 

So it looks like there is at least one sector of the economy where Republicans do favor onerous government regulation: women's health.

As you've probably heard, both houses of the legislature have now passed SB732, which imposes a whole array of burdensome regulations on women's health clinics that provide abortion. Ostensibly a response to the House of Horrors abortion clinic run by Philadelphia's Kermit Gosnell, the bill would force clinics to adopt medical procedures more in keeping with a hospital: driveways capable of accepting ambulance traffic, larger elevators, new HVAC systems and so on. Clinic operators have decried the measures as totally unnecessary for protecting patient health, and a backdoor effort to put clinics out of business.

Ordinarily, of course, Republicans are highly hostile to regulations that interfere with commerce. The very first bill Gov. Tom Corbett signed as governor, in fact, was the repeal of a bill requiring new homes to be equipped with sprinkler systems. The state's construction industry had argued that the requirement could add as much as $10,000 to the cost of a new home.

Republicans were sympathetic; bill sponsor Garth Everett opined that the sprinkler measure "was basically going to add a lot of cost to a home at a very small increase in the safety factor, and it was handicapping the housing industry in Pennsylvania." And in signing that bill, Corbett declared "Whether or not new homes are equipped with sprinklers should be a decision left to individual consumers and not the government."

The reports from Gosnell's clinic are horrifying no matter what you think about abortion. But it's not at all clear how larger elevators would have changed that, or how imposing such requirements will "increase the safety factor" at any location where abortions are provided.

Meanwhile, home fires can be horrifying as well, and often have tragic results for mothers and children alike — as Pittsburghers have seen, tragically, just this week. But hey, this is the GOP: When a special interest like the construction biz is involved, a cost-benefits analysis is necessary. But no price is too steep when a group like Planned Parenthood has to pay it. And reproductive decisions are the one area where "individual consumers" — i.e. women — can't be trusted. For guys like Everett — who voted for the new clinic regulations this week — it turns out there's a place for paternalistic government after all.

Of course, it's obvious what's going on here: As I've written before — and as we saw with the surprise trouncing of an extreme anti-abortion measure in Mississippi, of all places — there's little support for the extreme pro-life position. So pro-lifers are using a different tack, opportunistically using the Gosnell case to achieve their ends through more subtle means. And Republicans in the legislature have been willing to help.

But let's not just call out Republicans. Here are some local anti-choice Democrats who voted in favor of the bill, just in case you want to remember in November:

Dom Costa
Paul Costa
Dan Deasy
Anthony Deluca
Marc Gergely
Bill Kortz
Joseph Markosek
Harry Readshaw
Adam Ravenstahl

Hill District leaders are crying foul over the City Planning Commission's decision earlier this week to designate the Lower Hill as "blighted," arguing that the neighborhood was never consulted before the decision, which will allow the Pittsburgh Penguins to receive public funding for their development of the 28-acre property.

"Because there was no community process, and therefore no community input, from the Hill District, [t]he Hill District Consensus Group is in opposition to [the] decision by City Planning," Carl Redwood, who heads the Consensus Group, wrote in a press release on Wednesday. "Deals are being made between the Penguin Corporation and the City of Pittsburgh that are not in the best interest of the Hill District Community."

On Tuesday, City Planning approved the Urban Redevelopment Authority's application seeking to designate the Lower Hill as blighted. Doing so allows the Penguins to benefit from tax subsidies that would help pay for roads, utilities and other infrastructure.

Morning!

In next week's paper I'll be reviewing the debut cassette-tape release from The Garment District, the mostly-solo project of ex-Ladybug Transistor member Jennifer Baron. Baron recently released the a new video from the album, "Nature-Nurture," which features creepy building synth patterns and beautiful vocals from Baron's cousin, Lucy Blehar. The video was made by local filmmaker Keith Tassick, using images from Baron's Tumblr project in which she takes photos of the local news.

Check it out: