Scare Tactics

Cyclists are turning to ghost bikes to demonstrate the dangers they face on the roadways, but does anyone actually see them or the message?

• by Violet Law

Calling Foul

Steelers broadcasting legend Myron Cope is best known as a football guy ... but after 15 years of watching the Pirates lose, he comes out swinging

• by Myron Cope

Hate Zones

In some areas of Pennsylvania, bigotry based on sexual orientation is still legally acceptable.

• by Melissa Meinzer

Anti-death penalty group brings message of forgiveness

It wasn't the sentencing of son's killer that gave pastor peace; he says it was forgiveness.

• by Carrie Potter

Red Ginger

If the descriptions were all too summary -- "pork ear," "beef tendon," and the awe-inspiring "stir-fried mix of everything" -- it was pretty clear that the key was to put our faith in the kitchen, not to micromanage our meal.

• by Angelique Bamberg and Jason Roth

Schramm Farms and Orchards

• by Elisa Borger

A Conversation with John Schmersal of Enon

"And how much joy is left in something, when you don't have to do anything to get it?"

• by Aaron Jentzen

Anita Fix releases The Lost Songs of Alan Lewandownski

There's a depth to Lewandowski's plaintive man-child persona, part of a cultural outsider tradition.

• by Manny Theiner

Alia Musica presents New Music with a young, local focus

"If you're going to find composers that are young on the one hand, but also have some level of advancement, the likelihood is they will be at Pitt."

• by Manny Theiner

Gowns meld droning noise with quiet folk-pop

Gowns often exhibit a spiritual feel that pervades even when the content of the songs strays toward the mundane.

• by Andy Mulkerin

Mindless Faith releases the electro-industrial Medication for the Misinformed

Much like the rigged two-party system these boys surely decry, Medication doesn't launch any new policy initiatives.

• by Manny Theiner

The Pittsburgh International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival

The 22nd annual festival returns with entertaining and provocative feature films, documentaries and shorts highlighting the gay, lesbian and transgendred experience.

Michael Clayton

A corrupt corporation that knowingly poisons people with dangerous chemicals: That's yesterday's news and yesterday's plot. A corporate snake, Michael Clayton (Clooney) who sheds his evil skin: That's just yesterday's plot.

• by Harry Kloman

Across the Universe

Julie Traymor's candy-colored musical fantasia combines a TV-movie-style précis of tumultuous youth in the late 1960s with a textbook boy-meets-girl-then-loses-girl plot energized by Beatles tunes, most delivered in elaborate song-and-dance set pieces. [Capsule review]

• by Al Hoff

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

The frequently mythologized life and death of Jesse James gets another workover in this lengthy account of the 19th-century outlaw's last few months.[Capsule review]

• by Al Hoff

Deep Water

Lousie Osmond and Jerry Rothwell's documentary pieces together a modern-day endurance feat that spared no participants. [Capsule review]

• by Al Hoff

The Devil Came on Horseback

Ricki Stern and Annie Sundbeck's documentary provides a primer on the genocidal conflict in Darfur as it recounts one man's experience there. [Capsule review]

• by Al Hoff

Elizabeth: The Golden Age

Shekhar Kapur's movie is gloriously filmed and the costumes are lush. The plot, however, is a bit threadbare. [Capsule review]

• by Chris Potter

Gone Baby Gone

Ben Affleck's directorial debut is a pulpy mess of drug dealers, corrupt cops and dark bars full of daytime drinkers. [Capsule review.]

• by Al Hoff

Rendition

There's a lot of moral relativism -- and tricky questions -- in our actual War on Terror that are distinctly absent from this contrived, uninspired melodrama. [Capsule review]

• by Al Hoff

Things We Lost in the Fire

It's good to see Hollywood slow down a potentially sensational drama into small everyday moments, but Things We Lost can't help but be compromised by its surface sheen. [Capsule review]

• by Al Hoff

30 Days of Night

This above-the-Arctic-Circle thriller is like Night of the Living Dead and all its countless iterations, but with more darkness. [Capsule review]

• by Al Hoff

We Own the Night

Director James Gray finds cinematic beauty in NYC's less traveled spaces, and delivers one nervy, crackerjack car chase. [Capsule review]

• by Al Hoff

Kyle Ethan Fischer's exhibit mixed powerfully evokes Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath.

Human figures show up to crouch, fall through the air, and take aim. Color is limited primarily to the crimson of blood or flame, occasional bursts of metal, and every shade of gray.

• by Lissa Brennan

On the Run

Hoping for a change in government? Try moving somewhere else.

• by John McIntire

Coach Class

Mike Tomlin is off to a promising start heading up the Steelers

• by Jody DiPerna

Amazing Gracelessness

Duquesne University stands on principle -- and on a radio station's throat

• by Chris Potter

This Just In: Oct 17 - 24

Highlights of the local TV news. This week: Dueling Mommies ... Mr. Yuk in court ... The Great Pumpkin Heist of 2007

• by Frances Sansig Monahan

The Comedy of Errors

Think of it as 16 people in a fun-loving on-stage crew, all pulling in the same direction.

• by Gordon Spencer

The Recruiting Officer

Even more incisive is the undisguised glee of the upper classes in turning the less fortunate into cannon fodder, contrasted with their anguish at the thought that one of their own loved ones could end up in the army.

• by Michelle Pilecki

Mother Teresa Is Dead

By adding elements to hook theater-goers, Edmundson distances us from the message she obviously wants to impart.

• by Ted Hoover

Macbeth

Ben Greenstone's Macbeth came across not as a tragic figure, bewildered about what he is doing, but rather as an actor bewildered about the essence of what he says.

• by Gordon Spencer

A puppet adaption of surrealist classic Ubu Roi highlights the ninth annual Black Sheep Puppet Festival.

"It's Godzilla meets a sideshow carnival meets our current president," says Conroy. "It's very crass and obscene and bloody."

• by Lissa Brennan