Miles to Go on Police Accountability
There’s been a nightmarish familiarity about the allegations of police brutality against Jordan Miles, a CAPA honors sudent. I remember a cluster of similar allegations in the years leading up to a lawsuit and federal consent decree imposed on the city during the Murphy Administration. And at a press conference outside Mayor Luke Ravenstahl’s office…
MP3 MONDAY: Mace Ballard
Pop punk, with its serrated guitar hooks, sunny melodies and periodic gang vocals, has a strong presence in the Pittsburgh area — groups like Punchline, The Berlin Project, Transition, and more recently, Chalk Dinosaur. One of the newest groups to tap that legacy is Mace Ballard. Last fall, the band released its five-song debut, Can’t…
Joe Sestak: The Democrat Republicans Fear
This weekend, I was on PCNC’s Nighttalk: Get to the Point, and fellow guest Monica Douglas made an assertion that might have surprised people … assuming any were watching. (We were airing on a Friday night, after all, up against a Haiti benefit featuring folks like Justin Timberlake and Madonna.) Douglas is the executive director…
There Is No End To More
Jeremy Wade’s There Is No End To More begins with a bravura bit of seeming nonsense. It’s a movement piece: performer Jared Gradinger, occupying an essentially bare stage last night at the New Hazlett Theater, danced to a voiceover narration that seemed collaged from scraps of a half-dozen or more of the futuristic candy-coated superhero…
Mourners Say Goodbye to a Sidewalk Celebrity
For years, you couldn’t have visited the corner of Forbes and Smithfield without seeing Claudelle Bazemore. The friendly, sometimes-homeless Downtown fixture camped there daily, seated in a big chair with bags full of books and newspapers and a tall stack of plastic cups nearby. About 40 people gathered at noon today to mark Bazemore’s passing…
Winter Guide
Now that hopes for the Steelers have melted away, we just gained a bunch of free time on playoff weekends. Rather than mope around at home pretending to care about teams we hate, why not shrug off the black-and-gold gloom and get back to enjoying some of our region’s other attractions? Below we offer…
Short List: Week of January 21 – 28
Hello Kitty may be cuddly, charming and cute as a button, but to Jeremy Wade, she and her sickly-sweet counterparts aren’t as innocent as they seem. For him, the characters of Japan’s kawaii (or “cute”) culture resonate with sinister undertones, perpetuating what Wade calls “infantile escapism.” Wade, an American choreographer living in Berlin, studied kawaii…
Can Pittsburgh Make a Living Wage?
There’s already been some discussion of what City Councilor Ricky Burgess is up to with his effort to revive the city’s long-dormant living wage legislation. The big concern — especially among those fighting for a prevailing wage bill already on the table — is that all this newfound attention may kill workers with kindness. There’s…
Local Beat
While there have always been a few genre-specific online spaces for Pittsburgh music-heads, only recently has something of a community of hard-working music bloggers cropped up. “There’s a tight group of us; we share our ideas and see each other at shows and talk,” says Hugh Twyman, who chronicles indie shows in photographs at HughShows.…
The Yes Men Fix the World
Known as The Yes Men, Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno have garnered worldwide fame for punking global capitalism. Fix the World documents their greatest hits, like speaking at an energy expo to propose using human corpses as a power source. The pranks range from leaden to hilarious: a highlight is the “Survivaball” — personal protective…
A Single Man
Fashion designer Tom Ford makes his directorial debut with this period drama, adapted from a Christopher Isherwood novel. It’s Nov. 30, 1962, and 52-year-old English professor George Falconer (Colin Firth) has decided not to go on; his gay lover of 16 years has died in a car accident some months earlier. Falconer, ever fastidious, spends…
The Messenger
Back from Iraq with an injury — tellingly, his eyes can’t “cry” — a young Army sergeant (Ben Foster) gets re-assigned. His new job: partnering with a career captain (Woody Harrelson) as part of a death-notification duo. They drive to shabby apartments and neat suburban homes alike to tell wives, fathers, girlfriends and children that…
WQED TV debuts a new showcase for local filmmakers.
“This will really reach the ultimate audience.”
Antichrist
Lars von Trier has become a brand name in Provocative International Cinema. In his latest, the unnamed parents (Willen Dafoe, Charlotte Gainsbourg) retreat to a country cabin to process their grief, after their small child has died in a fall. There, things go from bad to von Trier. For the most part, Antichrist is pretty…
Stagioni
A new restaurant in Bloomfield offers a marriage of traditional Italian ingredients and modern, seasonal sensibilities
For the first time since she was fired by Dance Alloy, Beth Corning talks about that company and her artistic plans.
‘My 104-year-old great aunt once told me, “When one door closes, another one opens.”‘
A local photographer’s new book captures the often surprising beauty of the region’s state parks.
Then there are surprises like the stunning Frankfort Mineral Springs, in Raccoon Creek, and the beauty of newly minted Erie Bluffs State Park.
Artist Trevor Paglen explores extraordinary-rendition sites and other “blank spots” on our maps.
“Taking a picture of these things that weren’t supposed to even be there, and certainly not to be photographed, is insisting on your right to take that photo.”
When My Head Gets Too Big, I Remember
A poem by Anita Gevaudan Byerly
This Just In: January 21 – 28
Highlights from the local TV news: Icicle Dangers!
Job Hunt
Hill residents seeking jobs around Pens’ new arena
Board Games
Mayor fills some board seats, but leaves opponents out in the cold
Medical Drama
Doc accused of improperly prescribing narcotics takes final shot at new trial
Retribution Gospel Choir brings thoughtful power pop to Thunderbird Cafe
Although capable of something approaching power pop on songs like “Hide It Away,” RGC isn’t exactly a happy-go-lucky band.
Celebrated soul act Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings play Diesel this Saturday
Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings is one of the best live bands in America — as most who’ve seen their multi-hour sets will attest.
A Conversation with Lloyd Cole
“I almost feel like I’m too good at the solo shows now: I’m almost a bit too slick.”
George Aiken’s
The best spin on this Downtown eatery: its rotisserie chicken
Savage Love
I have a problem. I’m a recovering anorexic and I am still struggling to eat normal and healthy portions of food. A friend and I have recently become “friends with benefits.” He lives very far away, so we primarily indulge through IMs. He knows I have issues with food, though he doesn’t know to what…
