Are our professional sports teams’ names — Steelers, Pirates and Penguins — the original names?
Of the three, only the Penguins have played under the same name for their entire existence. The fact that they’ve played crappy hockey in recent years — just like they used to in the good old days — is also a nice retro touch. Of course, the Penguins haven’t been in existence as long…
Blast from the Past
How absurd is it that Rick Santorum holds a rally to promote a constitutional amendment outlawing gay marriage and he has Pat Boone beside him? And the press release promoting the rally says that Boone was “the second most popular singer in the United States in the 1950s.” Could there possibly be a more salient…
Summer of Love Short in Courthouse
Bipartisanship reigned, cooperation was the buzzword, and Dan Onorato was the uncontested leader of Allegheny County on July 13 – for about three hours. At 2 p.m. that day, County Executive Onorato gathered county councilors, state legislators and Pittsburgh Mayor Tom Murphy in the courthouse to tout $404 million in goodies written into the…
Starving for Attention
As a former member of the U.S. Army Reserves during the Vietnam War, Jonathan Robison of Oakland doesn’t believe a few reservists are solely responsible for torturing the Abu Ghraib prisoners. “I joined for the same reason Bush did: to avoid the draft,” Robison says. “The only difference was, I didn’t make a big…
Men in Back
Good work is not its own reward: The recent study by Ralph Bangs and Pitt’s University Center for Social and Urban Research documents that Pittsburgh women have among the highest percentages of college degrees but still suffer one of the nation’s largest gender pay gaps (see City Paper’s July 14 main feature, “No Girls Allowed”).…
Home Economics
When Jeffrey Dorsey walks along Penn Avenue, he doesn’t see an area in decline. As arts district manager for the Penn Avenue Arts Initiative, he imagines how area artists could buy and renovate each abandoned or derelict building. “Most artists that I have met are very passionate people,” Dorsey says, “and I think that…
Along Came Marry
Evan Wolfson, a Taylor Allderdice High School graduate, is now executive director of Freedom to Marry, one of the national groups promoting marriage equality for gays and lesbians. He has been arguing in the courts against anti-gay discrimination for many years, including a dozen spent at Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund. Now 47 and…
Follow That Story
Last week, City Paper reported the untimely demise of The World, the mid-sized all-ages concert venue in the Strip District that replaced Rosebud. But, as with all things in the Byzantine world of Pittsburgh’s live music venues, all was not as it seemed. Between City Paper press time and publication, things changed. “We had…
Bush League
“U.S. Casualty Rate High Since Handover.” When three U.S. Marines were killed in action near Baghdad the day after the June 28 “handover” of “sovereignty,” it presaged one of the bloodiest months for Americans in Iraq since the war began — and that month is still not over. White House hopes for a more pacified…
A conversation with Francine Porter
So, you’re a recent convert to the peace movement? After 9/11, I started paying attention to things heating up between the United States and Iraq, and followed the pre-war media as much as I could. Coverage of protests on TV got me thinking that I didn’t like what was going on, how they were talking…
The Roots
I remember people saying that Phrenology was actually what Black Thought’s solo CD was going to be, that the Cody Chestnutt anthem and Tourette’s skits were added to make it more Roots. However, maybe Tipping Point is what Black Thought’s solo CD was supposed to be, because Phrenology did sound as frenetic as its title…
Various Artists
Simply Good Music is a misleading title for the new collection compiled and concocted by New York City’s long-time multi-function source for soulful and funky, modernist dance music, Giant Step. For one thing, while the dance-worthy rhythms on Simply Good are immediate and largely accessible, this music is by no means simple – even to…
Going Nucular: Language, Politics and Culture in Confrontational Times
Reviewer: AL HOFF Summer reading is by definition light and enjoyable, but that doesn’t preclude processing a few deeper thoughts. And in the same summer that saw the runaway success of a book about misplaced punctuation (Eats, Shoots & Leaves), the public will surely enjoy an entertaining poke or two through the recent use…
Outgunned
In her first term as a Pennsylvania House member, Melissa Murphy Weber got to lead the charge on an issue dear to her heart: She became the prime sponsor of a bill that would make it tougher for domestic abusers. Weber (R-Montgomery County) was head of the domestic violence unit for the district attorney in…
De-Lovely
If clothes make the man, then Irwin Winkler’s De-Lovely, a biopic about the life of Cole Porter, is a very well-dressed mannequin. Filled with Porter’s highly entertaining music, and lusciously costumed on old-style Hollywood sets, it makes a somewhat effete effort to parse Porter’s odd marriage to Linda Lee Thomas (Ashley Judd), a wealthy…
Gypsy Café
Location: 1330 Bingham St., South Side. 412-381-GYPSY. Hours: Tue.-Fri. lunch 11:30 a.m.-3 p.m., dinner and late-night menu 6 p.m.-1 a.m.; Friday and Saturday 6 p.m.-2 a.m.; Sunday brunch Noon-4 p.m., home-style dinner 5-9 p.m. Fare: Miscellaneous Mediterranean Prices: Appetizers, soups, and salads $4-9, dinners $10-15 Atmosphere: Shabby swank Liquor: BYOB Until the clock strikes 10,…
I, Robot/Godzilla
When he awakens in 2035, rubs his sore shoulder and showers without a curtain, the man named Spooner (Will Smith) seems to be I, Robot director Alex Proyas’ way of telling us: Here is a person of flesh and blood, like you and I the very antithesis of what’s in store in this movie about,…
Off Target
In many respects, Dalia Mogahed couldn’t have looked more American on that Tuesday afternoon in late June. She was shopping at Target with her 4-year-old son, who needed a new pair of shoes. But while Mogahed was engaged in this most patriotic of acts — one endorsed after 9/11 by President Bush himself, you may…
