The Great Escape: Legislators trying to dig out from under the state's ever-growing prison budget

"If you do not reduce your costs in corrections, you cannot have a healthy state budget."

• by Matt Stroud

Jim Stein's bees keep him busy

"They don't stay in the neighborhood. You can't put your bees on a leash."

• by Abby Mendelson

Powdered Doughnuts and Peeping Toms

A poem by Jimmy Cvetic

• by Jimmy Cvetic

On the record with Rankin boxer Monty Meza-Clay

"It's unheard of what I'm doing"

• by Charlie Deitch

Old East Liberty Borders gets new life as pop-up bookstore

"Some people call it activism, other people are calling it social commentary"

• by Dana Sklack

GOP lawmakers pushing restrictive welfare-reform bills

"This is about putting more and more roadblocks in front of people who need help."

• by Kate Giammarise

Park Bruges

The new restaurant is a cousin, not an identical twin, of the original Point Bruges.

• by Angelique Bamberg and Jason Roth

Bacon Martini

Harris Grill marries the cocktail trend to its signature meat

• by Brian Tierney

Growing Together

Chatham hosts a lecture and workshop on permaculture

• by Chris Potter

Szmidt's Old World Deli

Greenfield is now home to a deli offering both new- and old-world tastes

• by Chris Young

Bitters reappear in local cocktail lists

Now that "everyone has their little bar book on their phone," customers are requesting more sophisticated drinks.

• by Brian Tierney

Mogwai

"I guess whoever happens to hear our music can make up their own word for it."

• by Andrew McKeon

Critics' Picks

Dead Prez, Ellis Paul, Moonrises, Stone Temple Pilots and John Brodeur

Brooklyn Club DJ Spinoza Returns to Pittsburgh

"Is this an art show, or is this a rave?"

• by Kate Magoc

Sharon Van Etten has epic success

The virtuoso performances are, time and again, rendered by Sharon Van Etten's voice, and her mind.

• by Andy Mulkerin

Vijay Iyer rejuvenates jazz tradition

Historicity wound up at or near the top of most jazz critics' year-end best-of lists.

• by Mike Shanley

My Mogwai Moment

He stood tall, if only briefly, in a most awesome exaltation, thrusting his fist in the air to salute the sounds.

• by Andrew McKeon

Five Questions with Rhydian Dafydd of The Joy Formidable

"The song is the most important thing, and what you're singing about."

• by Andy Mulkerin

Atlas Shrugged, Part One

It takes train magnate Dagny Taggart and steel-maker Hank Rearden only a year to re-construct a railroad of the future through the Rocky Mountains. Yet it reputedly has taken two decades to develop this adaption of just one-third of Ayn Rand's 1957 novel. It's not worth arguing the merits of Rand's philosophy here: This film was made by adherents, and it won't change any minds. Viewers will either applaud the carping about how government stifles capitalism, or will leave thinking such theories are crazier than ever. I've long thought that Rand's novel, stripped of its windy speeches and economic proselytizing, would make an excellent mini-series: a romantic potboiler combined with a sprawling industrial saga and family feud, mixed with a splash of mystery (see also Dallas, Dynasty). But alas, Atlas is strictly TV-movie caliber, a dull, low-budget talkathon that doggedly sticks to its polemics. Maybe if the actors were more dynamic, but this crew is flat, resembling a collection of budget-priced TV-news anchors.

• by Al Hoff

Super

After his wife runs off with a gangster, a sad sack named Frank (Rainn Wilson) re-invents himself as The Crimson Bolt, a masked crime-fighter. He's successful enough that he gains an acolyte, Libby (Ellen Page). Their goal: Retrieve Frank's wife from the drug ring. Super, written and directed by Troma vet James Gunn, shares some plot with the much-slicker Kick Ass, but is a darker, weirder animal. It's one of those tricky works that is intentionally walking a very narrow line between send-up and serious; it's low-budget and lovin' it (so hooray for all the clunky acting and bad effects); and it aims to push buttons (cue uncomfortable sex scene). It's gleefully casual about violence while, at the same time, commenting on that. Super's "heroes" are more damaged than empowered, andtt winds up in a "happy ending" that is also depressing. And somehow, this is all for laughs. You'll either find it amusing or you won't. I got the premise -- I could see the joke -- but I didn't find it funny in a satisfying way. (Al Hoff) Starts Fri., April 22. Harris

• by Al Hoff

The Last Lions

Jeremy Irons narrates this National Geographic documentary that examines the declining population of lions in Africa, by focusing on one lioness in a remote part of Botswana. After losing her mate, she and her three cubs stake out territory on an island also inhabited by aggressive buffalo. The scenery is lovely, and the lead lioness is a beautiful animal; footage of her hunting buffalo in the water is thrilling. (The sensitive should be forewarned: There's some on-camera killing, including that of baby animals.) But Last Lions, directed by Dereck Joubert, also employs popular cheats of the genre, such as creative editing, the use of slow-motion photography and appending a soapy narrative. Can't beasts just be the magnificent creatures they are, without some filmmaker adding a family melodrama and descriptors like "single mother"? A well-made documentary that sticks to the facts can be just as fascinating, if not more educational. (Al Hoff) Carmike 10, South Hills, ongoing. Starts Fri., April 22, at Oaks.

• by Al Hoff

The Carnegie showcases the gorgeous flights of imagination of a former Museum of Natural History director.

Avinoff's paintings burst with color and life, mixing Audubon and Bosch.

• by Lissa Brennan

Watt's New: There's more to choosing an electric company than just the price.

The cheapest options might be the worst for the environment.

• by Bill O'Driscoll

A new book uses August Wilson's plays as a guide to Pittsburgh ... and vice versa.

Wilson's childhood Hill District home, the library he loved to visit, the jitney station where he set one of his plays ... all are here.

• by Chris Potter

First Dance

A poem by Shirley Snodey

Hunter Gatherers

Bricolage gets every last bite -- and then some -- of a vicious new comedy.

• by Ted Hoover

The Alice Project

Carnegie Mellon's School of Drama explodes Lewis Carroll's Alice into extra dimensions.

• by Michelle Pilecki

Short List: Week of April 21 - 28