Arguments over Scaife divorce records continue … and continue …
How did our latest courtroom effort to shed light on the Scaife divorce case go? Put it this way: The first decision Judge Alan Hertzberg had to make was whether to close the hearing on our petition to open some of the records. Hertzberg has had the uneviable task of presiding over the contentious divorce…
“Cultivating Demand for the Arts”
Over the years I’ve spoken with many people about the “state of the arts,” especially arts groups’ prospects for attracting new audiences. But at a meeting yesterday hosted by the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council, the author of a new think-tank report put things in stark and perhaps unintentionally ironic terms. RAND Corp. researcher Laura Zakaras…
Self-inflicted wounds in mayoral debate on violence (now with video!)
I’ll try to put up some video of this later today (UPDATE: It’s here) but last night’s mayoral forum, held at the Kingsley Center and focused on violence prevention and gun rights, featured a couple candidates shooting themselves in the foot. The most gaping wound was inflicted during a discussion of domestic abuse. Mayor Luke…
Onorato comes out for anti-discrimination ordinance — and other news
Sue Kerr broke the good news already, but I thought it might be worth seeing on the county exec’s own letterhead: Dan Onorato supports anti-discrimination protection for the couty’s LGBT residents. The operative part of his statement reads as follows: I am strongly supportive of passing inclusive non-discrimination legislation here in Allegheny County, as well…
An echo of Stanton Heights?
Over the weekend a shooting took place in Florida which, as some commentators have already noted, bears a distinct resemblance to the Stanton Heights tragedy. Joshua Cartwright gunned down two deputies before being killed in a shootout with other police. Cartwright, like Richard Poplawski, had been previously accused of domestic abuse. And according to a police…
MP3 Monday: Mike Tamburo
Welcome back to MP3 Monday. This week’s installment features a guy whose tracks are all incredibly long, so you really get your money’s worth with one MP3 from him. That guy is Mike Tamburo, experimental hammer dulcimer king of Pittsburgh. I wrote a bit about him for his Fantastic Voyagers festival last November, and before…
Girl Talk in the news: Actual songs?!?!?!
Via The Daily Swarm and Crickets comes this entertaining read about hometown hero Girl Talk on Billboard.com — Girl Talk Experimenting With Actual Songs for Next Album. Yes, I know the interview just suggests a slight change in the nature of his craft, but it’s funny that we’re characterizing a musician’s hope to “write actual…
Bob Dylan announces July 13 show in Washington, Pa.
Just days before the April 28 release of his new studio album, Together Through Life, Bob Dylan has announced a local stop on his upcoming tour. On July 13, Dylan will play the CONSOL Energy Park, home of the minor-league Washington Wild Things, along with fellow icons John Mellencamp and Willie Nelson. Though we’ve heard…
Hot debating action on video!
You know, maybe we really only need a couple of mayoral debates after all. I say this after attending a forum held last night at the Rivers Club by the African American Chamber of Commerce. Not that the debate, moderated by Pittsburgh Courier publisher Rod Doss, was a bad one. It’s just the candidates have…
The Big Throwback celebrates 3rd Anniversary
They grow up so fast! It’s hard to believe it, but The Big Throwback is celebrating its third anniversary at Brillobox tonight, from 10 p.m.-2 a.m. In case you haven’t already experienced the sweaty melee, the popular night of classic funk and soul grooves is hosted once a month by prominent local DJs J. Malls…
Short List: April 23 – 30
Thu., April 23 — Stage A suburban Texas housewife held hostage in her own bomb shelter; the young pregnant woman who bound her with Christmas lights; and the captive aging former beauty queen’s husband are the dramatis personae in Disinfecting Edwin. The dark comedy is the latest from one of Pittsburgh’s top playwrights, Amy Hartman…
There Will Be Crud
In March 2002, Ron Gulla signed a lease to allow drilling for natural gas on his property, 141 acres in rural Washington County. Gulla, a heavy-equipment salesman, had purchased the stretch of wooded hillsides and open fields 12 years earlier, hoping to farm it. He says he didn’t trust the agents running around little Hickory,…
17 Again
Yes girls — Zac goes shirtless in the first minute, followed soon after by a cute, booty-shaking dance number. And while young Mr. Efron works hard for the rest of Burt Steer’s switcheroo comedy, he’s never quite as dreamy and adorable as when he’s boogie-ing across the gym floor. (Hey, they should make a musical…
Serbis
Brillante Mendoza’s day-in-the-life Filipino drama is set almost entirely within the confines of a cavernous, decrepit movie theater, run by an extended family who also make their home within its crumbling warrens. It’s an all-hands-on-deck affair, from selling tickets to declogging the toilet to running a street-level fast-food café. The venue shows heterosexual porn, but…
The Informers
Gregor Jordan’s ensemble dramedy-cautionary tale-slick sleaze-fest is set among the rich movie-biz folks in Los Angeles circa 1983. (It’s adapted from Bret Ellis Easton’s novel, and Easton co-wrote the screenplay.) The beautiful youth (among them Jon Foster, Lou Taylor Pucci and a barely clothed Amber Heard) spend their time modeling Ray-Bans, doing drugs and having…
Gooby
Wilson Coneybeare’s movie doesn’t bring anything new or exciting to the genre. But its basic tale of a kid who learns to better manage his fears, friends and parents is harmless enough. Willy is petrified about moving to a new house, but finds his troubles smoothed by the appearance of his childhood bear, Gooby, now…
Katyn
In September 1939, Poland found itself between the Germans and the Russians: Which way should people run? Who could they better trust with their lives? Andrzej Wajda begins his story with exactly this dilemma, which results in 20,000 Polish officers being taken prisoner by the Russians, as the Germans occupy the country. The officers were…
State of Play
Hollywood never tires of trotting out stories that pit tenacious reporters against various political conspiracies. The latest iteration is State of Play, adapted from the 2003 BBC mini-series of the same name, and directed by Kevin Macdonald (The Last King of Scotland). The story – a web of interconnected shadowy interests, power grabs and murders…
Red Oak Cafe
Food-as-politics matters here but this spot for quick fare trades mainly in food-as-healthy-fuel
Carbomb
Alas, the play is better at evoking the Three Stooges than at re-creating a palpable sense of horror.
A Bite of Brecht
It was kind of difficult to know exactly when and where we were … although I don’t think such quotidian specificity was important to deviser/director Robyn Archer.
Godspell
Nearly 40 years later, Godspell is just as bizarre and hokey as ever — and it’s still unavoidably fun.
This Just In: April 23 – 30
Highlights from the local TV news: A dip into tea-party hilarity.
Letters to the Editor: April 22 – 29
Feedback from our readers: More blowback over Potter column.
Still Fighting
Pa. LGBT anti-discrimination bill is alive, but facing more opposition
No Comment
Public investigation into 911 center closed off by gag order
Learning Curve
A school for troubled students is making progress, but officials say it may still need improvement.
Comic T.J. Miller talks Pittsburgh, Carpoolers and more.
“They’d yell ‘Marmaduke!’ and ask, ‘Why aren’t you in your underwear?'”
Local trio Mother Sun releases expansive debut EP
“Phantasmagoria” is easily as good as anything Sigur Rós has concocted lately.
The Frick’s The Road to Impressionism gorgeously illustrates a slice of painting history.
To weigh Breton’s laughing peasant girls against Millet’s tired, ruddy laborers is to juxtapose the smiling housewife from a Mr. Clean commercial with the Hazelwood woman on the 11 o’clock news.
Pittsburgh’s Human Quena Orchestra unleashes apocalyptic doom without the gloom
This isn’t a band looking to take down humanity — it’s a band looking to pick up the pieces when humanity destroys itself.
Philadelphia band Dr. Dog digs PA, pop and pork products
Dr. Dog certainly pulls off that “Who is that? It’s good”-Beta Band effect.
Black Moth Super Rainbow plays free CMU show, prepares new release
“I know a sampler and a computer are essentially the same thing, but a sampler feels more real, and I can’t really explain why.”
Pittsburgh n’@
Dispatches from the local blogosphere: Pens fans pucked over by NBC.
Three Rivers Arts Festival announces schedule for “learning year”
“We want to try to have a little bit of everything. We also try to push the envelope — a little bit.”
Savage Love
I’m a 32-year-old, very attractive, very fit SWM living in NYC. I’m well-read and well-spoken. Friends tell me that my personality is intense. It must be true — everyone concurs. I’m extremely idealistic, and I count myself as a romantic. I’m interested in an intense and consuming love affair with a woman. But friends tell…
Kaya Happy Hour
Half-priced drinks – and inventive veggie snacks — deliver full enjoyment.
