Dance Alloy Theater To Merge With Kelly-Strayhorn
City Paper has learned that the Kelly-Strayhorn Theater is merging with Dance Alloy, which for years has been Pittsburgh’s premiere modern-dance troupe. While the move leaves intact the Alloy’s long-running dance school and community-engagement programs, its future as a performance group is uncertain. The Alloy, whose board had earlier approved the merger, is set to…
Delay in hearing for police officer accused of insurance fraud
A preliminary hearing was delayed today in the case of a Pittsburgh police officer whose conduct was the subject of a City Paper report in March. City officer Garrett Brown did not appear for a preliminary hearing on charges of insurance fraud and theft by deception — both third-degree felonies — and making false reports.…
The Moth Launches New Pittsburgh Initiative
While last night’s local installment of the popular New York City-based storytelling series was a hit, it was nearly upstaged by an announcement made right in the middle of the show. Host Rudy Rush told the sellout crowd of 550 at the New Hazlett Theater that in October, The Moth will launch one its story…
Long Are the Days, Short Are the Nights
One hand in front of me, one at my side following the wall as it mazes at 30-degree angles, the already opaque darkness grows. The walls, what I can see of them, seem to shift in panels from bright white to deepest black. Like much of Liberty Avenue, Downtown, number 943 once housed a peep…
Standard Bearer
If a tree falls in a forest during an NFL lockout, does anyone hear it? If not, then Rashard Mendenhall, James Harrison and Hines Ward — who may have behaved in a way unbefitting of the standard of the Pittsburgh Steelers this past off-season — are in the clear. Not to rationalize, but at the…
Breaking Out
Most fans know all about Steelers stars like Ben Roethlisberger, Hines Ward and Troy Polamalu. But what lesser-known names are worth keeping an eye on during the preseason? Here a quick guide: Antonio Brown, receiver (#84) The second-year player made a spectacular clutch catch against the Ravens during last year’s playoff run. And he’s…
D-Fanged: Will NFL rule changes take the bite from the Steelers’ D?
If asked to name significant dates in Pittsburgh Steelers history, few fans would likely cite Oct. 17, 2010. But that’s the day Steelers football as we know it changed. The 3-1 Steelers were coming off a bye week and playing their historic rival Cleveland Browns at home. In a matter of seven minutes, Steelers linebacker…
Field Test: The Steelers may be the AFC’s team to beat, if they can stay out of their own way
Emmanuel Sanders finished Super Bowl XLV with a walking boot on the foot he’d broken that night. But it wasn’t the pain in his foot that bothered him most while the confetti showered the field and the Green Bay Packers celebrated their 31-25 victory over the Steelers. “I thought to myself, ‘Man, I have to…
Short List: August 25 – September 1
Thu., Aug. 25 — Comedy “I was dating a mime,” recalls Amy Schumer. “I didn’t even know he was a mime at first. I thought he was just pale and quiet. I’m like, ‘He just likes The Cure, you guys don’t get him.’ I just couldn’t get close to him. It was like there was…
Witch Flavor
It’s 2:30 on a Wednesday afternoon, and the door to Beaver’s newest ice-cream shop, Witch Flavor, hasn’t stopped opening and closing since I got here. “It’s really busy on the weekends,” says co-owner Lisa Ragazzini, when asked if the steady walk-in traffic is the norm for a weekday afternoon. She and her business partner John…
1947 Tavern
The local group B2 Restaurants has largely flown under the radar. Its portfolio began with Buffalo Blues (hence “B2”), an early arrival on what has become the trendiest, tastiest block of South Highland Avenue, and the Elbow Room, on Ellsworth Avenue. The Elbow Room was a neighborhood place that seemed more in tune with Shadyside’s…
Savage Love
I’m unemployed in Oregon and trying to come up with ways to make rent. My wife and I would like your opinion on the legality of selling my teenage son’s sweaty gym clothes online. It sounds skeezy, I realize, and I’m half-joking here. If we had a nonsexual website with pictures that weren’t necessarily of…
Cage Match
The scorpion’s name is Cupcake. And Cupcake looks pissed. “Oh come on,” a zoo official with a walkie-talkie strapped at his waist says. “How scary can it be with a name like that?” He’s talking to a girl. The girl is on Cupcake’s side of the safety rope. The zoo official is on the other.…
Bittersweet Lesson: We need foreign students to teach us a basic lesson of fairness?
Zhao Huijiao thought she knew what working in America would be like. “They told me we were just packing chocolate,” said the 20-year-old student from Dalien, China. “I think, chocolate is sweet.” Bittersweet, more like. Zhao was among 400 foreign students who’ve spent this summer packing Hershey’s candies at a distribution facility in Palmyra, Pa.…
Velocity of Sound Records does nothing but vinyl
“Putting out records, for me, is kind of like getting tattoos,” says Darren Little, proprietor of Velocity of Sound Records. “You just wanted to get one at first to see what it’s like. Then you got that one and you wanted another, and next thing you know you’re collecting them. It’s like I’m collecting bands.”…
On the Record with Jake Orral of JEFF the Brotherhood
The members of Nashville’s JEFF the Brotherhood are brothers, though neither is named Jeff. Jake and Jamin Orrall’s ultra-endearing sixth release, We Are the Champions, has collected comparisons to early Weezer and Ramones, and is available from Infinity Cat Recordings, the label they run with their dad, songwriter/ producer Robert Ellis Orrall. So, about…
Critics’ Picks: August 26 – 31
[HIP HOP] + FRI., AUG. 26 Singer-rapper-beatbox enthusiast Gene Stovall is taking his talent to the loft. Classic 1824 & Social-Lite Event Group continue their monthly “themed experience” event series with Exposed: Loft Party, on Butler Street, in Lawrenceville, above 720 Music, Clothing and Cafe. The intimate setting is ideal for a performance by Stovall,…
Damaged Pies Day
By proclamation of the county executive’s office, Fri., Aug. 26, is officially Damaged Pies Day in Allegheny County. Here’s an excerpt from the official decree: WHEREAS, The Damaged Pies have been a successful Pittsburgh-based rock band for 25 years, and WHEREAS, The Damaged Pies are considered one of Rock and Roll’s most durable and…
Damaged Pies’ Steve Bodner celebrates 25 years of music and charity work
There are traditional metrics for measuring pop-music success: Record sales, label interest, concert attendance. While these things do matter to Steve Bodner, it would be silly to say they’re his prime motivators; the Reserve resident, who’s celebrating his 25th year performing under the name Damaged Pies, has other reasons for pursuing his passion these days.…
Pittsburgh school district poised to sell off shuttered buildings
In the market for an old school building? The Pittsburgh Public Schools may have just the deal you’re looking for. Last night, the city school board unanimously adopted a new policy for the sale of 17 former school buildings, including Oakland’s beloved Schenley High School. The policy, which requires that requests for proposals and bid…
On the Record with director of the Pittsburgh Film Office, Dawn Keezer
As director of the Pittsburgh Film Office, Dawn Keezer, along with her staff, is least partially responsible for the fake snow in Downtown, the car chases through the city’s streets, and various Christian Bale and Anne Hathaway sightings throughout the city. It’s all part of the filming of Dark Knight Rises — the latest Batman…
Converge Left: Region’s social-justice groups assembling to “level the playing field”
In Washington and Greene counties, groups fight against long-wall mining, acid drainage and mountaintop removal. In Westmoreland and Allegheny counties, there are those focused on fighting Marcellus Shale natural-gas drilling. But despite the distances, many have the same goals: clean water and environmental sustainability. The Three Rivers Community Foundation wants to bring those and a…
A group of recent CMU graduates take the New York International Fringe Festival by storm
Outside a small theater in New York City’s East Village, on Aug. 18, a lined formed down the block to see PigPen Theatre Co.’s The Mountain Song at the 15th annual New York International Fringe Festival. Some didn’t even have a ticket, but stood in the rain, hoping for no-shows. Waiting for the doors to…
Tabloid
No matter how outré the subject, how clever the editing or how curious the visuals, the documentaries of Errol Morris usually come down to one thing: our abiding fascination with someone telling a story. The key talking head in his latest, Tabloid, belongs to Joyce McKinney. In 1977, the former Miss Wyoming tracked a former…
Sarah’s Key
In 1942, showing rare initiative, the Vichy government, with no help from its German guests, rounded up 13,000 Jews in Paris and environs and sent them off to the camps. Sarah’s Key, an adaptation of the novel by Tatiana de Rosnay, revisits the ensuing horrors in wartime France, and also tells a parallel story about…
Whose Wives Are They Anyway?
Why is it that the French excel in the multi-door sex farce? Perhaps it’s their fearlessness in nastiness, pitting one churlish stereotype against another. Americans fail because they want everyone to be nice, and stupid, rather than unpleasant. Apple Hill Playhouse, which successfully tackled the Feydeau-esque Ladies Man with such success last month, grapples less…
Emma
The problem with Jane Austen (and it’s a problem all writers should have) isn’t just that her characters or plots are so interesting. It’s that much of the joy she creates comes from the insight and comedy of the novel’s unspecified narrator. I should say that this becomes a problem when her work is adapted…
Monthly alt-culture party Sinferno/Hanging Garden turns 2
At first, says Sinferno/Hanging Garden co-founder LeeAnn Donan, “We were really bored.” She and her cohort Julie Devine wanted to dance, but found that the only places to go featured recycled Top 40, hip-pop or classic rock — not their cup of tea. Rather then sulk, they set out to create their own party, and…
Squonk Opera, Post-America’s Got Talent
Never mind Sharon Osbourne, let alone Piers Morgan. In the wake of July’s appearance on its biggest stage yet — the nationally televised NBC talent contest — the art-rockin’ stage troupe is back to work, touring old shows and developing a new one. But first, a few words about AGT, and those judges’ comments. “We…
