Casino gets master plan approval over continued objections of corporate neighbors

With the May 29 vote, Barden's PITG Gaming can begin construction at the site, which is located near the Carnegie Science Center. The approval followed several delays in which PITG and its soon-to-be neighbors -- the Steelers, Pirates and Carnegie Science Center -- tried to resolve concerns about the traffic the casino will create.

• by Charlie Deitch

Corporate Warriors

In Iraq, being a soldier of fortune is big business

• by Sandra Svoboda

A High Price

A total of $1.7 billion is Allegheny County's share of the war costs. It's enough to feed all the kids enrolled in the school lunch programs for 68,000 years. "These numbers boggle the mind," says Malik Bankston, executive director of the Kingsley Center.

• by Violet Law

Independent animal kennel under fire for euthanasia techniques

Depending who you ask, Ferree Kennels, in McKeesport, is either a mom-and-pop operation just trying to uphold the law ... or a house of horrors where innocent cats and dogs die grisly deaths. The kennel, run by Ken Ferree, has animal-control contracts with more than two dozen municipalities outside Pittsburgh, including West Mifflin, Homestead and Versailles. But animal-rights activists are upset at the method he uses to euthanize pets: asphyxiation with carbon monoxide. The method is legal, but activists say it is cruel; last week they staged a protest to get Ferree to change his ways.

• by Melissa Meinzer

Tamarind Flavor of India

While Tamarind's suburban location is almost strictly southern Indian, the Oakland version includes more northern Indian favorites, enabling this new restaurant to both complement and compete with Oakland's other nearby curry houses.

• by Angelique Bamberg and Jason Roth

A Conversation with Eleni Mandell

"Crying and moaning about bad boyfriends just got kinda boring."

• by Aaron Jentzen

Oxford Collapse joins the Unicorn Mountain collective for the Three Rivers Arts Festival

Dancey and thoughtful at once, they manage to sound as much like a band raised on Dischord as they do anything coming out of Brooklyn.

• by Andy Mulkerin

Raunchy rapper Blowfly lands at 31st Street Pub

If you thought Blowfly was some recent development playing off the popularity of Kool Keith, 2 Live Crew or Wesley Willis, think again -- hard.

• by Manny Theiner

Once Nothing releases Earthmover on CI Records

"I grew up in the church and wasn't allowed to listen to secular music. But I liked heavy music and kept looking for the heaviest stuff I could find."

Electrelane performs at the Warhol

Like Sleater-Kinney, the members of Electrelane have been known to voice staunchly progressive political views, though more in interviews than in song lyrics.

• by Manny Theiner

Paris, je t'aime

How's this for a French fete: 18 short films by 20 international filmmakers, all set in the City of Lights (and Love, of course), and all together lasting just two hours. That's less than seven minutes per rendezvous -- ample time for myriad little epiphanies and amusements. Think of Paris, je t'aime as a few days in the life of a city that forever pricks the imagination, assembled by some artists who are mostly smart enough not to overreach. Themes emerge -- loneliness, cultural misunderstanding, immigrant dreams, the real and the imagined, amour fou -- and some recur, like echoes. The best pieces in Paris, je t'aime ("Paris, I love you") feel particular to both the filmmaker and the city, rather than just to the former. It's all more charming than anything else, and of course, Paris explodes around it.

• by Harry Kloman

Into Great Silence

You really have to want to spend almost two hours and 45 minutes with Philip Gröning's documentary, set in the Grande Chartreuse, a monastery in the French Alps where the inhabitants live virtually without words, performing the most utilitarian of tasks between periods of prayer and study. His film allowed us to experience every micro-second of their solitude. The film is not particularly meditative: Meditation happens inside your own head, whereas Gröning asks you to pay attention to other people. Nor is it cultural anthropology; there are no talking heads to explain and reflect. You have to choose to believe there's a purpose to so much isolation and solipsism. Yet Gröning's visually handsome film turns their ascetic lives into aesthetic ones, and we learn nothing new about how it feels to live in such devotion. What do we gain by watching a man read a book if we don't know what he's reading and what he thinks about it? In silence, and French, with subtitles.

• by Harry Kloman

A man's obsession with a "sacred" object is the latest focus for "Dancing Outlaw" filmmaker Jacob Young.

• by Bill O'Driscoll

I Have Never Forgotten You: The Life And Legacy Of Simon Wiesenthal

In many archival interviews, Wiesenthal tells much of his own story, proving to be a lively, quick-witted, even self-effacing narrator. (Capsule review)

• by Al Hoff

The Italian

Koyla Spiridonov's unaffected performance helps root the melodrama, as does the shabby milieu and the film's explicit reminders of various failed Soviet and Russian policies. (Capsule review)

• by Al Hoff

Surf's Up

Surf's Up offer the usual simple lessons about believing in your dreams, but it conveys them in an amiable, pleasantly shaggy manner. (Capsule review)

• by Al Hoff

The Valet

The French seem to have an unlimited capacity for producing the gentle romantic farce, ideally set in attractive districts of Paris. (Capsule review)

• by Al Hoff

Rare wetlands birds populate the photo show Marshes: The Disappearing Edens.

By drawing together disparate geographical locations and chronological points, Burt not only tells a story of his ongoing preoccupation, but captures the individual characteristics of marshes in Connecticut, Maryland, Manitoba, New Hamshire, Virginia, Utah, and Saskatchewan.

• by Savannah Guz

Three Rivers Arts Festival

Selected Highlights

The Sound and the Furry

A city councilor who signifies nothing

• by John McIntire

A Conversation with Alex Wilson

"Some of these shootings occur over an argument about drugs. ... Then that violence can lead to someone on the other side retaliating. It's like a Ping-Pong ball back and forth."

• by Charlie Deitch

Who provides that mellifluous voice announcing Port Authority bus stops in measured, musical tones? Why are male voices never used?

Question submitted by: Sybilla Suda, South Side

• by Chris Potter

Stamp of Disapproval

I don't want to root for A-Rod, but you make me do it, Barry.

• by Jody DiPerna

Letters To The Editor: June 6 - 13

Feedback from our readers

Ancient History

Despite the first act's studied theatricality, Ives has gone to tremendous lengths to create a small play filled with many simple, heartbreaking moments.

• by Ted Hoover

The Male Intellect: An Oxymoron?

The Male Intellect smacks of PG-13 standup comedy, bumper-sticker wisdom, and those forwarded e-mails about how women are moody and men are egotistical.

• by Robert Isenberg

American Humbug

To blame P.T. Barnum for corporate media is like saying that Richard Wagner invented Nazi Germany.

• by Robert Isenberg

LABCO dance company marks 10 years with a show.

What hasn't changed has been the company's commitment to presenting original contemporary dance works and to using local talent.

• by Steve Sucato

The Pillow Project launches a year-long multimedia series.

"We cannot rely anymore on just marketing ourselves as a dance company. We have to prove our wits in other arenas."

• by Steve Sucato