And now, a word from Rick Santorum
One of the benefits of being a reporter is that you end up on the e-mail lists of every right-wing whack job in the tinfoil-hat brigade. Which means that when former Sen. Rick Santorum recently used a conservative e-mail list to call his comrades to the ramparts, I got the message too — addressing me…
Pittsburgh’s Poster Child For Bad Debt?
Sometimes it seems like a Pittsburgher can barely renovate the basement without The New York Times writing about our transformation “from a down-and-out smokestack to a gleaming cultural oasis.” (See, for example, here and here.) Whenever one of these pieces gets published, the locals e-mail and dissect it, trying to discern what it says about…
Certifiable
I’ve long been a fan of the media-watchdog group Media Matters, so I felt a slight hometown thrill when I saw this item, about Pittsburgh’s own Mike Pintek, last night. Pintek attracted MM’s notice while guest-hosting on the Quinn & Rose program. (Which — full disclosure — used to be hosted by the parent company…
Unsportsmanlike Conduct
I’m pretty sure there’s no penalty for taunting in hockey. I’m positive there isn’t going to be any penalty for Mario Lemieux’s taunting Pittsburgh about his new hockey rink, either. But I kinda wish someone would highstick him anyway. At a groundbreaking ceremony for his new $290 million arena today, Lemieux told reporters it “wasn’t…
From Chapter 2 of Senselessness:
In order to celebrate my first day of work as God intended I arranged to meet my buddy Toto at noon at El Portalito, the city’s most legendary cantina, fortunately located a mere two hundred yards from my office, close enough to prevent the onset of anxiety in someone who is afraid, above all else,…
Uncommon Senselessness
The genocide that accompanied Guatemala’s long-running civil war has been called “the silent holocaust.” From about 1960 until 1996, when peace accords were signed, an estimated 200,000 civilians died. Most were indigenous people of Mayan descent, and most perished, often horrifically, at the hands of the Guatemalan military. But the atrocities committed in this small…
What We Do Is Secret
Darby Crash, lead singer of 1970s Los Angeles punk band, The Germs, left the classic résumé to become a minor cult legend: Make a glorious mess, be misunderstood in your time and die young (Crash died in 1980 from an intentional drug overdose). Now, Crash’s Germs days are the subject of Rodger Grossman’s rather lo-fi,…
Sputnik Mania
On Oct. 4, 1957, the Soviets amazed the world by successfully launching a small satellite named “Sputnik” that began orbiting Earth. The Space Race – and its darker corollary, building weapons to be potentially deployed in space – was on, as the United States rushed to catch up. David Hoffman’s documentary charts the year that…
Conversation in Tobacco
A poem by Kelly Forsythe
With some favorite pieces and a few new dancers, Pittsburgh Ballet holds its annual free summer shows.
The free summer-evening performances have for decades brought ballet’s high art to the grassroots.
West Side Story
West Side Story is a musical about what happens when three geniuses write a musical.
Animal Rights: New pet store near ARL getting protests
A new Petland near the Animal Rescue has activists crying foul despite the store owner’s attempts to reach out.
Neighborhoods: ELDI moving forward with cohousing development
East Liberty development officials are hoping that a former drug house gets a new lease on life as a shared living paradise.
This Just In: August 14 – 21
Highlights from the local TV news.
Wai Wai
Location: 4717 Liberty Ave., Bloomfield. 412-621-0133 Hours: Mon.-Thu. 11 a.m.-10 p.m.; Fri.-Sat. 11 a.m.-11 p.m.; Sun. Noon-10 p.m. Prices: Appetizers $2-5; entrees $6-10 Fare: Classic Chinese-American Atmosphere: Asian Modern Liquor: BYOB Smoking: None Permitted Bloomfield, unlike certain Little Italys we could name, isn’t coasting on its past. Here, little old ladies still get up…
The Next Chapter
While a plea to avoid jail time may be good for a Donora woman, it’s too early to tell what it could do to the First Amendment.
Turned Out
In some ways, Tina Tyler is a lot like many other 19-year-olds. She works at a clothing retailer; she treasures her independence; and she’d like to go to college. But what distinguishes Tyler from her peers is how far she’s had to travel just to get here — and how much harder the road ahead…
Tropic Thunder
Things go horribly wrong when a group of fatuous actors believing they’re on a “guerilla shoot” re-enacting a Vietnam war story end up lost in the jungle and in the crossfire of real-life and armed bad guys. Among the deluded actors: a faded action star (Ben Stiller), a crass funnyman (Jack Black) and an Australian…
American Teen
Besides some scenes that appear staged for the camera, the Nanette Burstein’s film stumbles in a few other ways, most notably in how it’s so thoroughly unoriginal and reminiscent of just about every senior-year-of-high-school documentary you can name. It also feels uncomfortably like those silly MTV half-docs Laguna Beach and The Hills, and Burstein’s cameras…
Shadow Lounge open mic features Minnesotan Caroline Smith
Smith shoots for a brand of indie pop that’s in the neighborhood of Feist and St. Vincent, though with looser production and less contrived dramatic effects.
Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford on Nostradamus, Nostradamus and headlining the Metal Masters tour.
“I think all of us in the band are really open-minded about people who have prophesies, see the future, see ghosts, see UFOs.”
Singer-songwriter — and farmer — Nicole Reynolds performs at WYEP
She’s the rare young folkie who actually bales hay now and then.
Questioning a local graphologist’s claims about handwriting and personality.
The book’s bubbly prose doesn’t provide evidence for these or many other claims, which seem to rest entirely on analogy.
Pittsburgh Center for the Arts offers a potent and diverse Pittsburgh Biennial.
Vitone’s ability to capture everything from the painted-face posing of Insane Clown Posse fans to the ritualized awkwardness of a debutante ball still amazes.
A Warhol exhibit gives short shrift to a Modernist master’s historical importance.
Visitor awareness of this historical background would bring valuable eloquence to Mondrian’s rigidly silent geometry.
Lunch a la Popeye: Greens and Beans
Pittsburgh offers a variety of the traditional Italian dish.
All Cauc’ed Up
Pittsburgh has long been the place where good government goes to die. So for would-be reformers, it was ominous that the Democratic Party hammered out its national platform at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center on Aug. 9. And indeed, the key reform proposed at the session went nowhere — even though it tried to…
For sound artist Robert Weis, it’s reduce, reuse — record
“I don’t like to play live because what I do is like painting with sound, and it’s time-consuming.”
Savage Love
After six months of marriage — I’m a straight male — the sex had become routine but enjoyable. To remedy this, my wife and I discussed new things we might like to try. We were both being shy, so I said the first thing that came to mind: “Anal?” My wife got quiet and the…
