State Your Business: Where public employees work

• by Chris Briem

Mugged: The deal for WDUQ could leave employees and jazz fans feeling robbed

Once WDUQ officially changes hands later this year, the station will lose its call letters and be relocated to WYEP's South Side headquarters. It also seems likely to downplay jazz programming in favor of stepped-up local-news coverage.

• by Chris Young

Backstage Class: Point Park Students getting educated at Stage AE

"It's going to provide students a leg up and an advantage to understanding this is a bottom-line-driven business," says Steve Tanzilli, SAEM program director.

• by Lauren Daley

The Milkshake Factory

There's no way a trip here won't have you pining for warmer days

• by Andy Mulkerin

Pure and Simple Bistro

The South contributes some of its most distinctive flavors to a thoughtfully curated selection that, for the most part, is true to the name on the storefront.

• by Angelique Bamberg and Jason Roth

In High(land) Spirits 

A beginner's guide to Scotch.

• by Brian Tierney

CD Reviews

Reviews of albums from Ivory Weeds, Matt Haimovitz and Ucello, and Nancy Galbraith.

Sympathy for Scooby

Jeremy Coleman's new album explores and exposes warnings against rock 'n' roll's evils, even as it reinforces its mystique, and generates a feeling of apocalyptic dread.

• by Margaret Welsh

Critics' Picks: Jarrod Gorbel, The Plain White T's, Bo Burnham, Bitch and The SUNSTAR Music Festival

Music highlights the week of Feb. 24-March 3, from politically incorrect (Bo Burnham) to politically charged (Bitch).

Saintly Celebs

According to music journalist Andrew Beaujon, there are two major differences between the Christian market and the general market: "The first is that controversy has a negative effect on album sales," he writes. "The second is that sex does not sell."

• by Margaret Welsh

Unknown

After a car crash, Martin Harris (Liam Neeson) discovers another man is living his life, right down to his wife and job. Lacking any identification, Harris commences to prove he is who he thinks he is. Something must be fishy, because Harris is being stalked by a dark SUV. (Prompting that existential thriller query: If I've ceased to exist, why are these mean guys following me?) Jaume Collet-Serra's action thriller is in the canon of classic Hitchcock -- the falsely accused man on the run while trying to prove his innocence. It lacks Hitchcock's finesse and wit, but hurtles along nicely on plenty of narrative intrigue and a solid performance from Neeson. The cae chase and brawl scenes feel shoehorned in, but the puzzle stays fairly solid. It's a savvy old former Stasi officer (Bruno Ganz) who knows to ask: "Why would they want to take your place?" Unlocking a mystery requires not a spectacular car chase, it seems, but simply the right question. (Al Hoff) CP Approved

• by Al Hoff

Every Man For Himself

Godard, whose films are interesting even when (like this one) they're dull, is fascinated by the futility of relationships and the way men (mis)treat women, and he's anything but subtle about it. As much as he loves ideas, he seems to love the impossibility of love even more. You know from the start of Every Man For Himself, his esteemed and somewhat tedious and transparent 1980 film, that he's not going to lie to you. When the friend of a writer (Nathalie Baye) asks if her book will be about how things are, rather than how we want them to be, she says, "That wouldn't go down very well." She's just moved from the cruel city to live in the verdant countryside, photographed by Godard with more sunlight than any artist has a right to borrow. Her story complements and interacts with those of a prostitute (the always-mesmerizing Isabelle Huppert), and a brooding TV director (Jacques Dutronc), named Godard. We struggle to hang on, the writer reflects, and we scream to whoever will listen, "I am not a machine." It's hard to know whether to nod profoundly at this or roll your eyes just a bit. Meanwhile, the fictional Godard just wants everyone to shut up. "Even in a dream," he says, "everyone keeps looking for solutions." And by dream, of course, he means film. In French, with subtitles. Starts Fri., Feb. 25. Harris

• by Harry Kloman

I Am Number Four

John (Alex Pettyfer) seems like a normal human teen, but he's actually from Lorien, hiding out on Earth to escape the Mogadorian invaders that wiped out everybody on his home planet. Ten Lorien kids escaped -- three have been killed, and now John is No. 4 on the hit list. 

His latest refuge is a dinky town in Ohio (locations around Pittsburgh were used), where he chafes – with typical adolescence contrariness – under the protective care of his minder/bodyguard, Henri (Timothy Olyphant). Henri cautions John to go quietly about his life, lest they be discovered by the alien Mogadorians hunting them. But seriously: How could kids at a small-town high school fail to notice a new dude this good looking? Sure enough, he's almost immediately hassled by the jocks; flirted with by an arty A-list girl (Dianna Agron); and befriended by the school nerd (Callan McAuliffe).

D.J. Caruso's (Disturbia) thriller is aimed more at teens than adults, but it was enjoyable enough. While not exactly subtle, I liked the film's riff on how teens -- especially those who bounce around or have chaotic domestic lives -- can feel alienated. That said, most miseries of adolescence can't be fixed with supernatural powers John has; on the other hand, most of us survived high school without little thought to being vaporized by an eight-foot-tall dude from a rival planet.

The ending is an expected round of dizzying high-action battles, and introduces a new character and wrinkle with little preamble. But as a consolation, I Am Number Four suggests that film featuring other numbers may soon follow. In English, and some Mogadorian, with subtitles. (Al Hoff)

• by Al Hoff

Zero, One, Togetherness: Fe Gallery explores intimacy in the digital age

Getting Closer looks at a set of artists in relatively new and exploding media whose boundaries seem to change on an hourly basis.

• by Justin Hopper

Too Perfect: Sarah Hobbs offers carefully controlled chaos at Silver Eye

Hobbs makes neurosis tangible through staged scenes portraying the aftermath of obsession.

• by Lissa Brennan

Cornography: Ethanol has been very, very naughty to the environment

As little as five years ago, corn ethanol and other biofuels were widely hailed as a solution for everything from declining oil reserves to climate change. Less noted is what a bad deal corn ethanol is environmentally.

• by Bill O'Driscoll

Trees

A poem by Rachel Hutchinson

The 25^th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

This is a big-hearted show which manages to be sentimental but never saccharine.

• by Ted Hoover

Local dance companies create Double Fantaisie this spring.

"Aerobically it is a very difficult piece; the dancers are constantly running and jumping."

• by Steve Sucato

Churchill in Short(s)? 

Why would Pitt Rep bother with such pompous soliloquies?

• by Robert Isenberg

Short List: Week of February 24 - March 3