My Best Friend
Actor Daniel Auteuil finds himself in yet another gentle French farce. And once again the rather bland character he portrays is desperately trying to convince others that he’s somebody better or more interesting. In Patrice Leconte’s film, François (Auteuil) is an uptight antiques dealer who makes a bet with his business partner that yes, indeed,…
A Conversation with Mike Smalley Jr.
When commuting to his job as a chef, or checking out as many rock shows as he can, West Mifflin native Mike Smalley drives an unassuming red Chevy Cavalier. But in his off-hours, he’s the master of two “crawlers” — custom-built remote-controlled trucks that specialize in covering rugged terrain — named “Anubis” and “Prometheus.” Smalley…
Rush Hour 3
A black guy and an Asian guy go to Paris … No, this isn’t an old racist joke. It’s the plot of the latest installment in the familiar, but surprisingly exciting Chris Tucker/Jackie Chan buddy-cop series, directed, as always, by Brett Ratner. The jokes, the plot and most of the action sequences are recycled from…
Non-Profit Group Fishing for a Controversy
When Oceana, an international nonprofit group dedicated to preserving ocean life, sought to pressure Giant Eagle grocery stores with a billboard campaign, its ads were rejected. The group suspects the ads — which sound the alarm over mercury levels in seafood — were quashed after pressure from the regional supermarket giant. Both Giant Eagle and…
Acanthus
Location: 604 W. North Ave., North Side. 412-231-6544 Hours: Thu., Fri. and Sat. 5-10 p.m. Prices: Seven-course prix fixe menu $65; a la carte appetizers $10; entrées $28-36 Fare: Contemporary Continental Atmosphere: Elegant, but slightly earthy Liquor: Full bar Smoking: None permitted Carriage houses, the garages of their day, have aged more gracefully than most…
Awaiting Trial, Anti-war Protesters Experience Hearing Problems
Noah Willumsen, a protester with the Pittsburgh Organizing Group, and his lawyer were puzzled and upset by the delay. Following an April 3 protest at a Shadyside military recruitment center, Willumsen was cited for failure of disorderly persons to disperse, and obstruction of administration of law. “He’s not charged with rioting,” says Willumsen’s lawyer, Erika…
The Dog Days of Dining
Asta — the fox terrier and amateur gumshoe who worked alongside fictional high-society sleuths Nick and Nora Charles — dined at four-star restaurants in Manhattan and San Francisco. Dorothy Parker’s prolific pooch Cliché endured hours of puns under an Algonquin Round Table. In Europe, Fido and Fifi can march indoors beside their owners, furry heads…
Eighteen
Eighteen is meant, I think, as a small show about ordinary people who, without realizing it, make a series of tiny choices ultimately leading to big trouble.
Letters to the Editor: August 15 – 22
Feedback from our readers
Sextant
A poem by Erik Rosen.
Shame of the City
At this summer’s Three Rivers Arts Festival, the real-estate management company that controls PPG Place, Grubb & Ellis, removed a work of video “art” featuring a naked woman. Like right-thinking citizens everywhere, we at City Paper applauded this action. We know there’s a place for shameless displays of the human body — namely, pages 65…
Always … Patsy Cline
According to the script, Cline herself is just a li’l ol’ gal who would get shafted by a shady promoter if the more worldly-wise Louise weren’t around. Puh-leeze.
So why did that video get shut down at the Arts Festival?
“Representational nudity is part of what they don’t want to see.”
Despite flooding in Millvale, Mr. Small’s and Attic Records keep dry
“That morning, it sounded like someone hammering on the roof.”
Naked City
When you think of Downtown smut, the usual suspects come to mind — strip clubs and what could charitably be termed “specialty-video stores.” But in our midst, just above our heads — not to mention those of children! — are dozens of nude and might-as-well-be-nude representations, integral to some of our city’s most respected buildings.…
Bum-Rushing the Passer
If you want to dash your hopes for Mike Tomlin’s inaugural season as coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers, spend a few minutes culling magazines and fantasy-football reports. This just in: The Steelers quarterback is woefully inadequate. Don’t be bamboozled by Ben Roethlisberger’s strength of arm, or his swagger on the field. Don’t let his record…
Won’t Somebody Think of the Children?
What with MTV’s “Spring Break” specials, YouTube exhibitionism, and of course the decades-old depravity of the sock hop, it’s amazing any of our school-aged young people emerge with their virtue intact. There isn’t much we can do about these mass-culture influences on our young people’s behavior, but there is something we can do to improve…
This Just In: August 15 – 22
Highlights from the local TV news.
Pamela Lawton Trial Delayed — Again
Pamela Lawton was slated for trial Aug. 7 but it was delayed again, this time by her attorney so he could study the OMI report. That has angered many activists who have been waiting for this matter to come to what they call a just conclusion. “It’s hypocrisy,” says Minister Jasiri X of Muhammed Mosque…
Raw Data
Take a stroll through the Carnegie Museum of Art and you’d never guess that Pittsburghers are uptight about nudity. The very first piece of art you see as you enter the facility from the parking garage is a nude woman, sitting thoughtfully, her arms resting on her bent knees. No one seemed to mind…
Karate’s Geoff Farina returns with Glorytellers
Farina proves himself capable of evolving and telling a good tale with some meaning behind it.
Going Through the Motions: August 7-8
Pittsburgh City Council voted Aug.7 to lease the Bob O’Connor Golf Course at Schenley Park to First Tee, a nonprofit organization that teaches children, many from low-income neighborhoods, how to golf. But the only hole some councilors were worried about was the one the measure opened in the city’s budget. The problem many councilors had…
Buffing Up Pittsburgh’s Image
A woman reclines nude, her surroundings and much of her body obscured by deep shadows, her almost-abstract limbs looking more like high-contrast graphic elements than actual flesh. Superimposed over this black-and-white photo is the Barbara Krueger-esque text: “Beauty is in the eye of the media shareholder.” The same could be said of the media consumer.…
The Phantom Family Halo gets loose at Garfield Artworks
It might come as something of a surprise that The Phantom Family Halo has roots in Louisville’s indie rock scene.
Whenever I pass the plaque on Smithfield Street, claiming the University of Pittsburgh was founded there in 1787 (in a log cabin, no less), I see red. I believe that plaque is a big corporate lie. Is it?
Your cynicism serves you well. Because arguably the University of Pittsburgh, that bastion of truth, is built on a foundation of lies. The 1787 date reflects the founding of the Pittsburgh Academy, which Pitt historian Robert Alberts calls Pitt’s “grandfather.” The school was chartered by the legislature in 1787, in an act noting that every…
Andy Warhol and Keith Haring’s religious works surprise at The Warhol.
Personal Jesus takes two men we thought we knew and shows us sides we may never have anticipated.
Coalesce re-coalesces for reunion tour
Teen-agers who grew up on the Family Values and Ozzfest tours would do well to listen and learn about the quantum physics of hardcore.
El Cantante
Leon Ichaso’s bio-pic has the emotional depth of a made-for-TV movie, but despite its flaws, this mix of melodrama, music and Miss Lopez stays entertaining, if only as a guilty pleasure. El Cantante is hardly a well-rounded portrait of Lavoe: Insight into his demons is limited and secondhand, and for those unfamiliar with the Latin…
Savage Love
I am a single guy … never good with women … not many girlfriends … I didn’t have sex till I was 31 … but all my life I’ve had this strange fetish. … I love to be shampooed with lots of lather and suds, suds in my eyes, nose and mouth. I have been…
Eli Keszler and Ashley Paul improvise at Garfield Artworks
Keszler is currently touring with frequent collaborator Ashley Paul, a reed player and vocalist. The sound they originally developed as music students has been informed more recently by the ambient noises of their farmhouse in upstate New York. Paul calls the effort a “collaboration of two really individual musicians.” As he points out, “Neither of…
Death at a Funeral
The script introduces a checklist of stock characters and their shrill witless neuroses. The corpse of the story is a well-to-do septuagenarian whose family and friends have gathered for a funeral at his country estate. Various kin show up to “mourn,” including nephew Troy, a pharmacy student and amateur illegal druggist. Cue accidental drug-trip antics,…
In the Flesh
When Ron Jeremy and Pastor Craig Gross talk about pornography, it’s something of a family affair. Jeremy, the 54-year-old porn star, and Gross have been touring the country in a bus, debating about porn on college campuses and in night clubs, as they did Aug. 9 at Stratus in the Strip District. Ross has his…
Teenagers Seek Poetic Justice In Outbreak of Violence
On Aug. 10, JaMay Blackwell joined a score of other Hill District teenagers at Freedom Corner to rally for a stop to the recent outbreak of shootings in Pittsburgh. “Make the violence cease,” they chanted. “Put the silence to the violence.” The teenagers are participants of a summer program hosted by the Hill House in…
Arctic Tale
If you or your kids enjoy nature films featuring spectacular scenery and the playful antics of unusual animals, then Arctic Tale should fit the bill. Likewise if you’re freaking out about global warming, and want to see another inspirational/bummer film documenting shrinking polar ice and endangered wildlife designed to reinforce the simple ideas you already…
A local writer’s take on Pittsburgh for visitors joins the Moon guidebook series.
His first job as a travel writer was to learn about where he already lived.
Big Winners In 48-hour Film Festival
From August 3-5, Aloomination Productions was one of 28 teams and more than 280 filmmakers racing against the clock to finish a four-to-seven minute short-film [See City Paper, Against the Clock, Aug. 8]. For the contest, each group had to pick a genre out of a hat, and filmmakers were required to use a given…
Bamako
In a guarded courtyard of a home in Bamako, Mali, citizens hold a trial hoping to convict the World Bank, G8 and the IMF of crippling Africa’s development. As they present their case, other villagers go about their daily lives around them, be it menial work, tending to the sick or simply being unemployed. Abderrahmane…
Pittsburgh n’@
From: http://genebromberg.com/?p=743 I’m totally pissed off and my pissed-offedness is a totally righteous one. What the HELL were these people thinking? The Pittsburgh Steelers are the paragon of no-frills, no-excuses, I’m-gonna-smash-your-head-in-all-the-live-long-day-football. Which pretty much sums up the city’s attitude toward, well, everything. And we have a frickin’ mascot called STEELY MCBEAM?? This is UNACCEPTABLE. This…
