Breaking Up a Home

For many neighborhoods like Hazelwood, tearing down buildings is all anyone can think to do

• by Adam Fleming

Table Games: Penguins contend city, county represent them in CBA talks; officials say not so fast

As preparations for the new arena continue, so do the talks over a Community Benefits Agreement. Can a deal ever get done without the Pens at the negotiating table?

• by Chris Young

A conversation with Mike Farrell

• by Charlie Deitch

Foxes Wrecking the Henhouse?

City, contractors squabble over responsibility for asbestos

• by Adam Fleming

Fermentation evangelist Sandor Katz makes his first visit to Pittsburgh.

Fermentation is Katz's favorite way for people to help themselves, and help the planet, by breaking the corporate food chain.

• by Bill O'Driscoll

Police: Officer ignores review-board subpoena to answer conduct, use-of-force charges

It's been "years" since a subpoenaed city police officer failed to show up for a Citizen Police Review Board hearing on a citizen complaint. And while showing up is the most some officers will do, Sgt. William Vollberg didn't even go that far.

• by Marty Levine

Protest: POG plan to 'cage' recruiters met with counter-protest

A POG proposal to symbolically invade the facility and "cage" the recruiters inside drew the attention of right-wing bloggers and other media, prompting death threats and wild rhetoric from thousands via e-mail.

• by Marty Levine

Animal Rights: Activist, former animal liberator to speak at Pitt

In 1997, activist Peter Young was part of a road trip from Washington state to Florida with a purpose: to liberate as many animals as possible from fur farms, and release them into their natural environment. After spending two years in prison, he's still trying to make a difference

• by Lissa Brennan

Ritter's Fried Green Tomatoes

• by Melissa Meinzer

Piper's Pub

At this South Side Brit-pub, bangers feature as prominently on the menu as hamburgers.

• by Angelique Bamberg and Jason Roth

Local New Music ensemble Alia Musica releases new CD, Premiere Season

All share a well-planned-out neo-chamber quality, making them very appropriate to be performed by New Music ensembles almost anywhere in the world.

• by Manny Theiner

Howlin Rain offers a fresh take on '70s American guitar rock

"There are no sampled beats, no sharp, Pro Tools-y sounds, but I don't think that makes the band sound old."

• by Andy Mulkerin

Beatrix*JAR brings "fuzzy sound collage" to the Warhol

"You don't have to do anything except open the machine, get a piece of wire and touch the board."

• by Manny Theiner

Free improv duo Audrey Chen and Frederic Blondy perform at Pitt

Both combine traditional playing with what's commonly called "extended technique."

• by Andy Mulkerin

The Jayhawks' Gary Louris to perform at Mr. Small's, backed by Vetiver

There's probably little to say about Gary Louris that alt-country fanatics don't already know.

• by Manny Theiner

The Pittsburgh Jewish-Israeli Film Festival

The annual festival offers two dozen films from Israel and around the world representing Jewish experiences from the comic to the dramatic to the inspirational.

Paranoid Park

He's rarely done it as effectively as he does here with Alex (Gabe Nevins), a disaffected Portland skater teen whose dream of riding the rails goes horribly wrong. Van Sant is a maddeningly indulgent director, especially when he breaks faith with his characters. This time, perhaps because he's working from a novel (by Blake Nelson), he gets it right: You grieve for Alex because he's a decent kid who just needs a mentor to bring out his strengths. At one point, Van Sant films the skateboarders in slow motion, not as a cliché, but seemingly to contrast the hasty indifference of adult life with the more contemplative world of teen-agers. [3 out of 4 stars]

• by Harry Kloman

Married Life

Bored middle-aged Harry (Chris Cooper), rather than put his loyal wife Pat (Patricia Clarkson) through a painful divorce, decides to humanely poison her. Then, he can marry his beautiful young mistress, Kay (Rachel McAdams), who has also aroused the interest of Rich (Pierce Brosnan), a committed bachelor and Harry's best pal. Set in an unnamed U.S. city amid superb 1949 upper-middle-class period detail, Ira Sach's melodrama offers fine understated performances as well as nods to the Golden Age of stylized Hollywood domestic-crisis films a la Hitchcock, Sirk and Ray. Sachs buttresses this affair-of-the-heart feature with twists of thriller and sardonic comedy of manners. But where the story, with its stunning betrayals, ought to crackle and wound, Sachs' deliberateness and restraint add distance to what should be prime entertainment. Starts Fri., March 28. Manor (AH) [capsule review] [2.5 out of 4 stars]

• by Al Hoff

Run Fat Boy Run

Don't be fooled by the poster pimping funny Englishman Simon Pegg, the clever bugger who helped bust open the zombie canon (Shaun of the Dead) and sent up the action-cop genre (Hot Fuzz). This romantic comedy is strictly by the book: Dumb guy (Pegg) loses perfect girl (Thandie Newton), who then finds a new man (Hank Azaria), who seems awesome but is revealed to be a cad. So, the two men take to battle, in this case, running a London marathon, in order to prove ... well, something. There's the odd chuckle, but these two funnymen plus Irish-comedian co-star Dylan Moran deserve a sharper script and a less hackneyed story. (Which also features, in the seen-too-often department: extra-cute kid; goofy Indian neighbor; upscale cupcake bakery; short-shorts jokes.) Former Friend David Schwimmer makes his directorial debut. Starts Fri., March 28. (AH) [capsule review] [2 out of 4 stars]

• by Al Hoff

Teeth

Mitchell Lichtenstein's indie feature, a dark comedy about a teen-ager named Dawn who discovers she has a toothed vagina, is an off-beat hybrid of ancient myth, domestic horror and female empowerment. Also in the mix, a critique of teen-chastity programs and a wink at eco-thrillers (it may be just a coincidence that Dawn lives near a nuclear plant). This balancing act is sustained on the slender shoulders of Jess Weixler, who delivers a more-sensitive-than-than-this-genre-deserves portrayal of the frightened, then emboldened young Dawn, who discovers her anatomical adaptation during a sexual assault. Lichtenstein keeps the plot simmering slowly and, for the most part, doesn't sensationalize or freakify the sympathetic Dawn. Teeth has the occasional splash of exploitative gore, but as you might expect, it's the men who get hurt, and the bleeding is pretty localized. Starts Fri., March 28. Harris (AH) [capsule review] [2.5 out of 4 stars]

• by Al Hoff

Is it true that the first drive-in service station for selling gasoline was created in Pittsburgh?

Question submitted by: Joe Forbes, South Side

• by Chris Potter

This Just In: March 26 - April 2

Highlights from the local TV news: A story reporters can sink their teeth into ... The quest for the right bra

• by Frances Sansig Monahan

Novelist Junot Diaz, who's coming to Pittsburgh, discusses the reader as immigrant.

"I think the best books ask the reader to be kind of an immigrant, to try to learn all the rules of this new world as best as possible."

• by Melissa Meinzer

Assassins

Director Jack Allison and musical director Jeffrey Sarver get one of the best-sounding Assassins ever out of this fiercely talented student cast.

• by Ted Hoover

It's a whole new "Alice" in Dance Alloy's Feed Your Head Café.

"It's a surreal place that on some levels presents itself like a living pop-up book," says Corning.

• by Steve Sucato

Flight

This production is lively and colorful, and strikes a few nerves of its own, but also more than its share of jarring dissonances.

• by Ted Hoover

Lavender Lizards and Lilac Landmines: Layla's Dream

This production is lively and colorful, and strikes a few nerves of its own, but also more than its share of jarring dissonances.

• by Michelle Pilecki