No such thing as free speech: City tries to bill Merton Center $6,000 for G-20 march
So much for free speech: The city of Pittsburgh is trying to bill the Thomas Merton Center a whopping $6,346.44 for security used during a Sept. 25 G-20 march. Melissa Minnich, communications director for the TMC, says the bill arrived Jan. 15, billing the long-time activist group for the cost of policing a permitted march…
UPDATED (now with more quotes): County prevailing wage bill introduced
As we were the first to report on Monday, county councilor Bill Robinson introduced a countywide prevailing wage bill in county council last night. You can find the legislation here. I haven’t done a line-by-line comparison between Robinson’s measure and the legislation put forward by city council but the measures appear to be highly similar.…
Blogging about blogs
In today’s paper you’ll find my debut as a columnist in our new Local Beat feature. Okay, so it’s not my most engaging work — but that’s because I wanted to cram in SO DAMN MUCH INFORMATION, know what I mean? It’s all about local music blogs, of which, I’ve learned, there are many. Since…
AppalAsia at Istanbul
I went to see Ordo Sakhna last Saturday and an AppalAsia concert broke out. My first trip to Lawrenceville’s restaurant/coffeehouse was to hear Ordo Sakhna, a troupe of professional musicians from Kyrgyzstan. The group is dedicated to preserving the culture of that country’s traditional nomadic way of life, but travel away from the plains of…
Prevailing Wage Bill Due at County Level
We’ve gotten word that at tomorrow’s county council meeting, county councilor Bill Robinson will propose “prevailing wage” legislation similar to that pending before the city. There have been rumblings about this bill for awhile now, but Robinson himself left a message at CP offices earlier today indicating his intention to introduce the measure tomorrow. Details…
MP3 Monday: Harangue
Harangue recently released a new LP, a split release backed by Enamel Records and Wilder Pryor Recordings. They long-running keyboard-based avant-pop combo had previously released a 7″, but this is its first full-length. It can be sourced from any of the usual locals — Paul’s, Eide’s, Desolation Row, Wicked Discs — and online at Chicago…
Note to the blogosphere, and the people who follow it: Just send money
I’ve been noting with increasing alarm some of the farther-flung online discussion involving Haiti, and especially the 150 children in an orphanage being staffed by two Pittsburgh-area natives. I’ve seen genuine, very heartfelt efforts at saving children get mixed up in misinformation, basic confusion and what look to be political shenanigans, intended to advance careers. …
Public sculpture “Rivers of Glass”
The southern end of Stanwix Street is, for the most part, steely and anonymous. It’s comprised largely of big office buildings in various shades of silver and gray, with relatively few points of entry to the street, and little to catch the eye. Any measure of detail or lightness here is welcome. Starting Jan. 11,…
Quick local hits: Gramsci Melodic, Ennui, Haiti benefits
Hello, beautiful people! Your CP music team wishes to send along a couple quick notes regarding local band scuttlebutt! Here it is! Exclamation point! First, you might remember me writing up locals Gramsci Melodic last summer when that band’s LP came out. Since then, they’ve been keeping up a regimen of local shows, and…
If only Braddock was New York City, UPMC would care
So I’m flipping my way through The New York Times, reading about Haiti this morning. (Though in local media, of course, the real action is happening online, thanks in large part to Ms. Montanez’s efforts at That’s Church.) And then I come across this ad — occupying about half of page A-25: In case you…
Short List: Week of January 14 – 21
Whenever we discuss race, equality and social justice, Martin Luther King Jr., is still invoked as much as anyone. This year, the federal holiday celebrating his birth falls on Mon., Jan. 18. In Pittsburgh, commemorations of King’s life and legacy have become institutions in themselves. Performances on Jan. 16 and 18, for instance, mark the…
Water Torture
Billing problems give Pittsburgh utility customers a sinking feeling
Youth in Revolt
Fed up with troubles at home, a sweet, nerdy teen-ager named Nick Twisp (Michael Cera) sets his sights on losing his virginity in Miguel Arteta’s adaptation of C.D. Payne’s novel. Nick’s target is Sheeni (Portia Doubleday), a wannabe-sophisticate, who is equally stifled at home. (Her parents are strict Christians.) Hoping to appeal to Sheeni’s love…
Leap Year
Following what she believes to be an Irish tradition, Anna (Amy Adams) plans to propose to her boyfriend on Feb. 29, while he’s on business in Dublin. So, in Anand Tucker’s romantic comedy, off Anna goes to the Emerald Isle. But not so fast — we’ve at least 75 minutes of wacky and heart-warming obstacles…
The Book of Eli
An unnamed man (Denzel Washington) trudges across a post-apocalyptic U.S.A., determined that his precious cargo – a book – reach its destination. All goes relatively well, until this stranger ambles into your typical, lawless frontier town (like Deadwood, after The Bomb), run by a violent despot named Carnegie (Gary Oldman). Carnegie also wants the mysterious…
The Lovely Bones
In adapting Alice Sebold’s novel — a wistful, sprawling tale of tragedy and its aftermath, told in the voice of a murdered 14-year-old – director Peter Jackson has trampled all over it — cutting, appending, mischaracterizing — while choosing to reach for just two incompatible tools: bloodless thriller and rainbows-and-sparkles after-life fantasia. Susie (Saoirse Ronan)…
Broken Embraces
Love, death, betrayal, revenge, Penélope Cruz, and movies, movies, movies: If this is all happening in Spain, it must be Pedro Almodóvar’s latest film, an ensemble melodrama-thriller, featuring a screenwriter, a mistress-turned-actress and a rich old man. The story is relatively intricate — told through flashbacks and stories-within-stories — though its characters are decidedly less…
Dor-Stop
This family-run venue is everything an American diner ought to be.
Lawrence C. Connolly’s fantasy and science-fiction shines in the retrospective collection Visions.
The latter is a genre hybrid slamming low-rent crooks into a space-alien scout via a convenience-store holdup.
This Just In: January 14 – 21
Highlights from the local TV news: Pushing the Envelope(s)
The Franklin Inn
Twice-cooked chicken wings spice up this home-style Mexican restaurant
Prevailing Sentiments
Killing a wage bill only makes it stronger
Trailer Trashed
South Side business owners say regulations are getting too strict
Alonzo King’s LINES Ballet brings a new work, and a revised one, to Pittsburgh.
“What affects me every time when I look at primordial dance is that presently we are doing the same thing, the same goals, because it is humanity.”
Local band Altaic explores “darker tonalities” with Oceans Down You’ll Lie
“I don’t think even in the more structured songs there’s anything approaching a strong pop sensibility.”
Sub Pop psych-folk act Vetiver plays Thunderbird Café this Friday
Despite being Vetiver’s “break out” album, Tight Knit is more for those looking to bliss out, not rock out.
Pittsburgh thrash band Mantic Ritual returns home after playing the “U.S. Plague” tour
Don’t miss the chance to catch the band in a small venue while it’s still four thrash guys in a van.
New goth/industrial night Midian debuts at the Fate Lounge
“We want to show that it’s still an exciting place.”
Savage Love
I am a 34-year-old straight, single female. My fantasy is to be blindfolded, bent over a table/couch/whatever, and fucked by whoever happens to walk by. I realize this would have to take place in a safe environment, but most sex clubs or parties tend to be for swingers, specifically couples. There’s a sex club nearby…
An exhibition of pulp-film posters at the Warhol delights and stupefies.
The viewer rides the current of over-stimulation without a life-jacket, which is really the only way to give the show its due.
