Emergency Operation

South Side councilor, residents are taking one last stab to save neighborhood hospital

• by Chris Young

All Uphill From Here

Hill District leaders say a new development pact may transform their neighborhood -- and the city itself

• by Chris Young

A local Presbyterian minister is acquitted for conducting a same-sex wedding by the church; but don't call it an endorsement of the practice.

• by Marty Levine

Courts: Gay plant worker looks to appeals court to condemn harassment

Few will dispute that Brian Prowel was harassed at work, but in order to win a lawsuit against his former employer he'll have to prove it was not because he has sex with men, but because he sometimes acted too much like a woman.

• by Melissa Meinzer

Education: Some local universities falling behind in hiring of women

For decades women have grabbed a bigger and bigger share of the degrees given out by institutions of higher education. But getting a job at those same universities has been a different story.

• by Adam Fleming

Carol's Restaurant

Detours worth the effort to this West End eatery.

• by Colleen Van Tassell

Bacchus

Although the name, the décor and the menu all lean Italian, the kitchen offers a broader range than marinara and veal, as Mediterranean staples such as basil and goat cheese stand side by side with curry, chocolate and remoulade.

• by Angelique Bamberg and Jason Roth

Saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa premieres new work at the Festival of Firsts

"When I was in India, I learned a lifetime of stuff to deal with as a composer and improviser."

• by Mike Shanley

Despite the chill, Centipede Eest rocks the dirty boulevard

Edgar Um kept up the rattle-trap grooves and weirdness on the turntables, as bundled-up attendees browsed a spread of kabobs and chips, and quaffed PBRs.

• by Aaron Jentzen

Jazz returns to Downtown with the opening of Little E's

Kazas has created an intimate loft that is ideal for listening, and which can accommodate about 35 customers.

• by Steve Hallock

Indonesian superstar Rhoma Irama gives a free concert at Pitt

Dangdut's lilting, gooey melodies and cult emphasis on singers also bears a resemblance to Algerian rai.

• by Manny Theiner

Tributes lined up for celebrated Pittsburgh DJ Mad Mike

The late, influential local DJ Mad Mike gets a CD tribute

• by Al Hoff

New concert series CP Remixed debuts this Thursday

It's not dance music in the typical sense, but there will be plenty for your feet to lock onto as you feed your head.

• by Aaron Jentzen

I Served the King of England

Jiri Menzel (Closely Watched Trains)is a long-standing filmmaker and Jan Díte, his protagonist in I Served, is a hot-dog vendor who becomes a brilliant waiter at fine hotel restaurants. How could two people be more not alike? But this is Czech cinema, where everything is irony and melancholy, the same yet different. Along the way, Menzel looks back at his own career, recounts his country's 20^th-century history, and ends with a toast to the past as present future. Sprinkled with metaphor -- some of it playfully transparent, some of it not so much -- it's pure Czech, vintage Menzel, and a thorough delight. You don't need a degree in English to see that Díte's story is his country's, from the naïve innocence of the early 20^th-century through decades of domination from outside and from within. The film is relentlessly witty in every way a movie can be: Sometimes it's the dialogue, sometimes the timing, sometimes it's silence or performance or the juxtaposition of images. Not black humor: The Czechs call it "laughter through the tears." In Czech and German, with subtitles. (HK) [3 out of 4 stars]

• by Harry Kloman

The Duchess

Set amid England's late 18^th-century gentry, Saul Dibb's drama is a movie about an ur-feminist -- the titular duchess, Georgiana (Kiera Knightley) -- forced to subjugate her mind and desires to the oligarchy of men who dominated her culture. We've seen that theme done before, but rarely so entertainingly, and by a cast of disciplined actors who dissolve into their historic personae. The Duchess has a lot of story to tell, and toward the end, it begins to bog down in the inevitable. But the first hour is crisp with intelligence and dramatic tension. To see contemporary actors like Ralph Fiennes and Charlotte Rampling perform so convincingly in classical style turns masterpiece theater into living history. We could take a few lessons of our own about whose rights we're denying today, and who will make movies about it a century from now to shame us. (HK) [3 out of 4 stars]

• by Harry Kloman

Monster Mash-Up

"I was like, 'I love tardigrades!"

• by Bill O'Driscoll

Appaloosa

In recent decades, the formula of the classic Western -- good guys in white, bad guys in black -- has blurred into variously shaded gray characters. But in Ed Harris' film, there is no doubt that his marshal-for-hire Virgil Cole (Harris) and partner Everett Hitch (Viggo Mortensen) are the good guys battling to free the town of Appaloosa from the ruddy-faced, pure-evil rancher Randall Bragg (Jeremy Irons). Like most classic Westerns, this is a story about doing the right thing for somebody else, and Cole becomes the center of a love triangle between a mysterious newcomer (Renee Zellwegger) and Hitch, the man who reveres him. The story unfolds leisurely, with just enough action to keep viewers engaged, but it's the performances that help make the film great. Harris plays it cool and even; Zellwegger, while outclassed, holds her own; and Irons is fantastic in the opening scene. The show stealer, though, is Mortensen, with a low-key performance that builds in edginess toward the somewhat surprising climax. (Charlie Deitch) [3 out of 4 stars]

• by Charlie Deitch

Beverly Hills Chihuahua

A pampered, pocket-sized pooch named Chloe gets lost in Mexico and must rely on other dogs to get her home safely. Her allies on this perilous road trip are a German shepherd named Delgado, a disgraced Mexico City police dog, and Papi, a besotted working-class Chihuahua-mix, also from 90210. Raja Gosnell's live-action family film is sorta silly -- the scenes of dogs in bikinis and high heels made my head spin -- but perhaps not silly enough: The plot is rote, the message tired ("believe in yourself") and there are too many stereotypes of man and canine. (Expect letters from angry Dobermans about being portrayed as angry.) For action, BHC relies on scores of trained dogs and a good bit of CGI. (Drew Barrymore, Andy Garcia and George Lopez lend their voices to the moving doggie mouths.) Paws down, the best sequence is the secret Kingdom of the Chihuahuas, an Aztec-ish canyon lair where thousands of oft-mocked tiny lapdogs celebrate their essential Chihuahua-ness. In English, with some subtitled Spanish, and dog dubbed into human. (AH) [2 out of 4 stars]

• by Al Hoff

Blindness

A mysterious virus causes everyone to go blind in this thriller from Brazilian director Fernando Meirelles (City of God), adapted from Nobel laureate José Saramago's allegorical 1995 novel. It's an ambitious project that doesn't make the grade. The first citizens stricken, including an eye doctor (Mark Ruffalo) and his inexplicably still-sighted wife (Julianne Moore), are quarantined and forced to survive in increasingly fraught conditions. What Meirelles delivers is an intriguing but frequently uneven work that toggles between sci-fi-ish dystopian thriller, allegory and an adult update of Lord of the Flies. A good ensemble cast does its best with often trite dialogue, and Blindness finds its best grooves in the claustrophobic squalor of the internment facility. The allegory of man's inability to really see is simple enough to take away, as are the reminders that man in peril will both rush to the bottom and rise to the occasion. But Meirelles stumbles at the end, where the film's depiction of the re-generation of humanity feels inelegant and rote, at odds with the more atmospheric, downbeat nightmare that preceded it. In English, and some Japanese, with subtitles. (AH) [2.5 out of 4 stars]

• by Al Hoff

The Express

In 1961, Syracuse University halfback Ernie Davis became the first African American to win the Heisman Trophy; two years later, at 23, he died of leukemia. Set amidst the era's civil-rights struggles, this golden-hued biopic packages "The Elmira Express" (who spent his early childhood in Uniontown, Pa.) as the mannerly, deferential yin to the fiery yang of the great Jim Brown, his predecessor at Syracuse, depicted here as Davis' mentor. But give screenwriter Charles Leavitt and director Gary Fleder credit: Their Davis (Rob Brown) is a paragon who knows when to pick his fights. He starts out a wide-eyed freshman on a de facto segregated campus, but ends up calling his bullheaded coach (Dennis Quaid) to account for not pushing the racial envelope enough, on the field and off. While Fleder's penchant for rumbly closeups saps the excitement from too many game sequences, The Express is a rousing tribute to a sports hero who died young. Starts Fri., Oct. 10. (Bill O'Driscoll)[2.5 out of 4 stars]

• by Bill O'Driscoll

Susanne Slavick's Artist of the Year show revisits, reframes and reclaims.

It goes to black while snowy curtains ghost in windows, and is finally resurrected in a warm Valentine pink glow, with railings rebuilt and safety restored.

• by Lissa Brennan

A new photo exhibit challenges stereotypes of lesbian couples.

"There are butch women, there are transgendered women, but the women are in love."

• by Jane Muder

This Just In: October 9 - 16

Highlights from the local TV news: Billy Ray meets Billy Ray.

• by Frances Sansig Monahan

Novelist Walter Mosley has a proposal for creating real democracy in the U.S.

"We have to get over the way they fool us into hating each other."

• by Bill O'Driscoll

All Souls' Day

Atrial Fibrillation

Paul Muldoon brings his virtuoso verses to the International Poetry Forum.

• by Bill O'Driscoll

Anthony Varallo's Out Loud nabs the Drue Heinz Literature Prize.

• by Bill O'Driscoll

Pittsburgh poets read Oct. 12 to benefit Obama/Biden.

• by Bill O'Driscoll

Edward Clug and Ballet Maribor set Romeo and Juliet to Radiohead.

The movement is minimalist, at times bravura, and decidedly European in style.

• by Steve Sucato

The Other Shore

The audience, and specifically its comprehension of the event at hand, is the last thing they're worrying about.

• by Ted Hoover

LABCO's annual Black Box showcase marks a decade.

The recent Slippery Rock University graduate says she was interested in stepping out of her artistic comfort zone with the piece.

• by Steve Sucato