Savage Love
My roommate is into BDSM. Fine. I couldn’t care less about his sex life. He met two women at a BDSM club whom he regularly “plays” with. They enjoy being subjected to what he calls “erotic torments.” Fine. But he also watches BDSM pornography. Since he has no way of knowing if the women in…
Grindhouse
The last 20 minutes of Deathproof are a white-knuckle, high-speed demo derby, with some brutal Dodge-on-Dodge violence.
Dowd fighting to get in same room with Bodack
“My grandpa taught me: Never argue with a jackass, because then you’ll look like one.”
Avenue Montaigne
Avenue Montaigne is a gentle, well-dressed, soap-operatic roundelay of interlocking tales, with Jessica moving in and out of the lives she’d like to live (and that she manages to change, and vice versa).
Judge refuses dismissal of Young Voters discrimination lawsuit
These days, you might expect the cash-strapped Port Authority of Allegheny County to take a few bucks from just about anybody. But instead of raking in advertising revenues, the transit agency might expect to shell out money for refusing ads. In August 2006, the League of Young Voters Education Fund and the American Civil Liberties…
Our Daily Bread
If you’re a factory chicken, your destiny is to be frequently vacuumed up.
Councilor wants periodic review of diversity hiring practices
A new ordinance introduced to Allegheny County Council seeks to require periodic review of county authorities and agencies to ensure racial, gender, age, disability, religious and sexual-orientation diversity.
Leena’s Food
The falafel is the real deal: flavorfully seasoned, tender fritters, studded with something like pine nuts — or was it sesame seeds? — for additional texture.
Shadow Lounge to use “chaperones” while serving alcohol at 18-and-over shows
Alcohol and minors don’t mix easily in Pittsburgh clubs, thanks to Pennyslvania Liquor Control Board restrictions.
Disturbia
This teen thriller builds slowly and indulges in a somewhat baroque conclusion. But in between, D.J. Caruso’s outing effectively straddles entertaining and pleasantly nervy. Mired at home under house arrest, Kale (Shia LaBoeuf) amuses himself by keeping tabs on his comfy suburban street through binoculars. His peeping nets him a new gal pal (Sarah Roemer)…
On Target
There are many questions surrounding the death of 14-year-old Louis Farrell, who apparently killed himself last summer with a gun taken from the home of state Sen. Robert Regola III. But judging from the coroner’s report, one thing seems clear: The Senator, a Hempfield Republican, is a bad gun-owner. And judging from gun-related crimes committed…
The Reaping
A religious scholar and debunker (Hillary Swank) finds her skepticism tested in this enjoyable but laughably bad horror thriller from Stephen Hopkins. (Capsule review.)
Italy’s Emio Greco/PC dance company summons Dante and more in Hell.
“Each week during its creation we discussed our opinion of what hell meant to us,” Greco says. “In a way what went into the work is a reflection of how fragile or strong we are as human beings.”
Tales Of The Brothers Quay: A Retrospective
The Brothers Quay send you spelunking in the dank caverns of the subconscious. (Capsule review.)
Pittsburgh N’@
From: http://www.theburghblog.com/ The Luke Ravenstahl “Move Forward” Drinking Game I get e-mails all the time from people wanting to tell me where they heard the phrase “move forward” and asking if they are permitted to drink in honor of said occasion. I think it’s about time we formalized the rules of the Luke Ravenstahl “Move…
Absolute Wilson
Katharina Otto-Bernstein’s profile of Robert Wilson is as straightforward as the avant-garde dramatist is genre-busting. (Capsule review.)
Local songwriter Paul Labrise releases Star Delight
“I feel like the imagery I’m putting forth are the times that you think about when you’re waiting for the bus — the idle time, the in-between moments.”
The World’s a Stage
Good Will hunting: Must Shakespeare be dressed in different clothes to matter? The Roman Empire, circa 44 BC, standing at a crossroads … late16th-century England poised on the brink of imperial expansion … a modern-day America tottering even as it displays its economic and military might. To Andrew Paul, artistic director of Pittsburgh…
A Parisian photographer offers an elegant, surprising take on the Seine.
Réquillart’s Seine photographs often frame their subjects so the viewer is able to see beyond their conventional identity and function.
Indonesian vocalist Euis Komariah performs at Pitt’s gamelan concert
A rare confluence of world music talent.
Good Will hunting: Must Shakespeare be dressed in different clothes to matter?
“People try to improve on Shakespeare, and what they usually do is destroy Shakespeare.”
Vale & Year’s David Bernabo continues solo work with McQueen Bear EP
There seems to be a gentle dichotomy emerging, in which Bernabo juxtaposes traditional forms against avant-garde backdrops.
Mono brings Japanese post-rock to Carnegie Mellon
It’s some of today’s most majestic, purely instrumental grandeur that can still be filed under “rock,” yet not boast its own PBS special.
Robert Peckman’s Stirrin‘ Up Bees features blue-eyed soul legend Johnny Daye
Peckman still belongs in the sideman Valhalla, able to step up whenever necessary and, just as readily, step back and share the spotlight.
’60s hard-rockers Blue Cheer surprise by, well, still rocking
Blue Cheer is the heaviest band you sort of know but don’t really.
The Academy of the South Side takes oil painting back to the future.
“We’re all sticking to a system that’s sort of been passed down forever.”
Managing the Heat
If anything could get Luke Ravenstahl burned, public safety might be it. This is the mayor who had an altercation with police outside a Steelers game in 2005, and things haven’t gotten much better since. Last year, Ravenstahl tried to install political insider Denny Regan as the head of public safety — despite Regan’s lack…
Last Holiday
David Byrd graduated from Carnegie Mellon University with his art degree more than 40 years ago, but he still remembers the day he traded his artistic talents to the Holiday bar on Forbes Avenue for a day-long party. “When I first came to [CMU]” in the early ’60s, says Byrd, the bar near Craig Street…
This Just In
Highlights from local TV news.
Police Reaction
Members of the Pittsburgh Organizing Group aren’t strangers to confrontations with police: The group often demonstrates outside military recruitment centers and at antiwar protests. But Noah Willumsen says he was surprised by an April 3 altercation on Shadyside’s Ellsworth Avenue, where he alleges he was choked by a police sergeant, William Vollberg. The picketers’ target…
Dance Alloy Theater premieres Donald Byrd’s stunning “No Consolation.”
At a performance of “No Consolation” at DAT’s sneak-preview series Behind the Curtain, I witnessed DAT’s dancers awash in unabashed pain, sorrow and anger, pouring their every fiber into Byrd’s taxing choreography.
Smoke Out
Beating a dead horse: It’s what the news media does. Why? Because so many millions of humans are in denial, and the only way to wake them up is to hammer home the obvious, ad infinitum. That’s why the constant drumbeat of articles on global warming continues. Because, though it’s difficult to precisely quantify, and…
Letters To The Editor: April 11 – 18
Putting Up His Dukes I was extremely upset at a racist comment made in the recent Left Field column, “Bittersweet Outcome” [March 28]. Jody DiPerna wrote she “could not even bring myself to conceive of Pitt losing to the whitest, most annoying team on earth in the second round … so I believe I speak…
