Vote for your favorite 2013 cover!
Vote for your favorite City Paper cover of 2013 for a chance to win a CP prize package! View all of the covers in the slideshow above. When you are ready to vote, select the issue on the right and click “vote.” —> (You must be logged into our website to be entered into the…
Snow Job: Post-Gazette holiday illustration tosses snowball at outgoing mayor
They say that art mirrors life. Which may explain why, even in a Post-Gazette illustration of notable Pittsburgh personages, outgoing Mayor Luke Ravenstahl is a no-show. The “Magazine” section of today’s P-G includes a full-page illustration of notable Pittsburghers, all gathered in Market Square. The illustration is a “Where’s Waldo”-style visual game in which you…
Last-Minute Gifts: “Remembering the Igloo”
Arena: Remembering the Igloo documents the landmark’s final days in photos
Sole-Searching: Peduto seeks new home for Wholey’s fish
In a press conference that — blessedly — had fewer fish puns than the headline of this blog post, mayor-elect Bill Peduto and Wholey’s President Jim Wholey called upon Pittsburghers to find a new home for the iconic Wholey Smiling Fish. The Fish, which has winkingly presided over the Strip District for a quarter-century, must…
Sprout Fund announces winners of film/video grants
Last month, the Sprout Fund ran an online contest for local fillmmakers seeking grant month for their projects; online viewers were asked to check out 35 projects that needed money and vote for their favorites. Today, the grantmaking organization announced three winners for its full grants — of $10,000 — and six additional winners of…
Lynn Cullen Live 12/20/13
Video Archive Guest: Chris Potter; PA Supreme Court votes parts of shale drilling unconstitutional, Justice Castille notes detrimental effects; Pittsburgh School Board looking into buying August Wilson Center building; The Elf on the Shelf; Pope Benedict, Dennis Rodman & Paddy Power all kindred souls; Obit: Al Goldstein, Screw magazine; nude photos of Jackie Kennedy-Onassis; gay…
Lynn Cullen Live 12/19/13
Video Archive Guest: Tom Sokolowski; Pgh probably won’t get Washington Monument scaffolding; Nu Jewish Bistro & the argument of sinker / floater matzo balls; everyone in Pgh should be taking vitamin D; ACLU case against PA’s DOMA; ideas of gay sex in the straight world; what’s in store for Sochi; Indian diplomat strip searched, locked…
Quirky-Gift Events Tonight
Make your own sweet treats or check out local comics and more
The Crucifer of Blood at PICT
THE CRUCIFER OF BLOOD continues through Dec. 21. Pittsburgh Irish & Classical Theatre at the Stephen Foster Memorial, 4301 Forbes Ave., Oakland. $25-48. 412-561-6000 x207 or picttheatre.org. Sherlock Holmes is one of fiction’s most durable and resilient detectives. And for the holiday, Pittsburgh Irish & Classical Theatre gives us a dose of Sherlock in The…
Savage Love
I’m a 28-year-old woman in a relationship for 3.5 years with a wonderful man. He is loving, sweet, kind, driven, active, handsome, generous, etc. We’re very committed to each other and planning our future together. Enter the issue: We’ve been discussing marriage since January. Until May, he was opposed to it. "I don’t feel old…
Artist Erin Ko offers art that’s transformed by her free downloadable app
PRESENT continues through Dec. 28. The Gallery 4, 206 S. Highland Ave., Shadyside. 412-363-5050 or thegallery4.us The title of Erin Ko’s interactive exhibition PRESENT, at The Gallery 4, can be interpreted in three distinct ways. The first way reflects verb tense: PRESENT joins past and future through the travel of time as well as space.…
Seven Bucks a Hit
we let it dissolve under our tongues wet from warm sips of Lion’s Head waiting waiting for something to happen we drive to McDonalds I order a Big Mac a lemonade see a bush move without wind smudges from bare feet against the window swirl off and back on again my burger crawling with sesame seeds the meat has worms burrowing in it my…
Inside Llewyn Davis
Inside Llewyn Davis Directed by: Ethan and Joel Coen Starring: Oscar Isaac, Justin Timberlake, John Goodman, Adam Driver Starts Fri., Dec. 20. Where to begin? The Coen brothers’ Inside Llewyn Davis is a joy to watch: funny, sad, intellectual, sentimental, humane, nostalgic and with some glorious music, some of it traditional, some of it gentle…
Short List: December 18 – 26
SPOTLIGHT: Stage Holiday traditions, too, need refreshing, and so it is with two of Pittsburgh’s most venerable. Performed annually since 1969, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre’s The Nutcracker is still going strong, in a Pittsburgh-set version created in 2002 by artistic director Terrence Orr. It’s got 100-plus characters, fantastic costumes, that hummable Tchaikovsky score and PBT students…
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman), Gandalf (Ian McKellen) and crew continue their looonnng journey in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, Part 2 of Peter Jackson’s three-part adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s adventure novel. If you’re a Tolkien-by-way-of-Jackson fan, presumably no film can be too long, but for citizens like myself, this middle outing to Middle Earth…
Pittsburgh chef and restaurateur Kevin Sousa has his sights on Braddock
Kevin Sousa’s idea of a view isn’t a sweeping coastline or perch atop Mount Washington. His new restaurant will lie in the shadows of Braddock’s still-active Edgar Thomson Steel Works, and will borrow both its name and space from "Superior Motors,” one of the first indoor car dealerships in the country. Calling it a restaurant…
American Hustle
A film about misrepresentations naturally opens with a lengthy scene of Christian Bale’s character sculpting the toupee/comb-over extravaganza that covers his balding head. But he’s just the first of the shape-shifting players we meet in David O. Russell’s entertaining but glib roundelay of scams, dreams, sex and wide lapels, set in New York City, in…
J.W. Hall’s Steak and Seafood Inn
J.W. Hall’s Steak and Seafood Inn 2284 Broadhead Road, Aliquippa. 724-375-6860 Hours: Mon.-Thu. 11 a.m.-9:30 p.m.; Fri.-Sat. 11 a.m.-11 p.m.; Sun. 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Prices: Appetizers, soups, and salads $5-14; entrees $14-28 Liquor: Full bar All too often, Jason is disappointed when visiting steakhouses that remind him of the restaurant meals of his childhood. These meat-and-potatoes…
Lynn Cullen Live 12/18/13
Video Archive Guest: Jared Day, Daylee News Nuggets; what the Forum for Economic Development is up to; how a Cincinnati social program could work here; Obamacare: comparable to the New Deal?; misuse of historical analogy; danger of China, Japan, Korea greater than Iran; men don’t read a lot of fiction; Texas getting bluer?; Obit: Harold…
Holiday ideas for, and by, local beer enthusiasts
Looking for a way to add to your holiday cheer this season? Some local beer enthusiasts have a few ideas. East End Brewing Company, for one, is offering a "12 Beers of Christmas” special. Owner Scott Smith says that, for $100 (discounted from $122), customers will get to sample the brewery’s entire current lineup of…
Saving Mr. Banks
John Lee Hancock’s bio-dramedy tells how a book about super-nanny Mary Poppins was turned into a movie. The conflict concerns Walt Disney (Tom Hanks) breaking down the opposition of author P.L. Travers (Emma Thompson), intercut with a heavy-handed subplot about Travers’ childhood in Australia. The film is sentimental, but the flashbacks are particularly lachrymose, ensnaring…
Jeff Campbell rides the wave after winning Guitar Center competition
JEFF CAMPBELL AND MEGAN SLANKARD with BRIAN LISIK 8 p.m. The Center of Harmony, 253 Mercer St., Harmony. All ages. $10-15. 724-400-6044 or thecenterofharmony.com It’s not that things were going poorly for Jeff Campbell — but until earlier this year, he was very much on the standard route for a singer-songwriter. Living in San Francisco,…
Legs Like Tree Trunks walk on into 2014
LEGS LIKE TREE TRUNKS with SHOCKWAVE RIDERZ, THE GOTOBEDS, NEVADA COLOR. 7 p.m. Sat., Dec. 21. Stage AE, 400 North Shore Drive, North Side. $10. All ages. 412-229-5483 or stageae.com It’s been a banner year for Legs Like Tree Trunks. The local indie band (which has members who live in Philadelphia as well) has toured,…
Frequent caller Michael Kastelic reflects on Tom Scharpling ending The Best Show on WFMU
On Dec. 17, comedy writer Tom Scharpling ended his storied run on The Best Show on WFMU, a show he created and hosted for 13 years on New Jersey free-form radio station WFMU. Scharpling’s weekly three-hour show was an intersection of underground music and out-there comedy, a self-described bastion of mirth, music and mayhem. Some…
Critics’ Picks: December 18 – 24
[ALT-COUNTRY] + FRI., DEC. 20 Jenny Parrott and Vaughn Walters were both accomplished musicians (he with Dynamite Tales, she in Shotgun Party) before teaming up in 2010 and writing songs together under the name Loves It. The Austin-based duo is now on tour promoting its second album, All We Are, which was released in October.…
New Releases
Chelsey Nicole and the Northside Vamps Love Through the Line (Self-released) A range of vintage sounds on this seven-song debut: Motown-style soul, blues, smooth Muscle Shoals stuff. Powerful vocals from Chelsey are good all around, but at their best when she’s belting — her voice is naturally so big, the emotional range that’s represented by…
Promoter alleges discrimination at Station Square nightspots
How much time has gone by since event promoter William Marshall filed a complaint alleging discrimination at Station Square? So much time that two of the bars named in his February 2012 grievance have since closed their doors. But Marshall’s case against them, along with another Station Square venue and the complex’s managers, lives on.…
Roboticist Illah Nourbakhsh explores the dark side of our "robot futures.”
Illah Nourbakhsh studies and designs robots for a living. But if you expect his new book, Robot Futures, to depict a care-free Tomorrowland of electronic butlers and automated fun, look elsewhere. The lively and accessible Robot Futures ($24.95, MIT Press) warns of a society warped by our relationships with a new "species” that knows more…
Show of Support: State legislators propose package of women’s-health legislation
As executive director for the Women’s Law Project, Carol Tracy has had a front-row seat to years’ worth of legislative attacks on women’s reproductive health. From fighting proposals for mandatory ultrasounds to legislation requiring expensive upgrades to abortion clinics and restricting abortion coverage on the state’s health-care exchange, Tracy says, "We’re all tired of being…
A South African photographer offers riveting portraits of LGBT individuals.
2013 CARNEGIE INTERNATIONAL continues through March 16. Carnegie Museum of Art, 4400 Forbes Ave., Oakland. 412-622-3131 or cmoa.org South African photographer Zanele Muholi has been awarded the Fine Prize (a more recent, well-conceived complement to the longstanding Carnegie Prize), created to "honor an emerging artist in the Carnegie International.” A native of South Africa, Muholi…
Unwelcoming Climate
Christopher Abruzzo, who was confirmed last week as head of Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection, has scant experience as an environmental regulator. Some critics call him unqualified for the job. The sad thing is, for the DEP under the Corbett adminstration, Abruzzo might actually represent a step up. Abruzzo had been acting director since April.…
Well at Off the Wall
WELL continues through Dec. 28. Off the Wall Productions, 25 W. Main St., Carnegie. $5-35. 888-718-4253 or insideoffthewall.com No one’s ever going to accuse Lisa Kron of stinting on ideas in her 2006 Broadway play Well, now at Off the Wall Productions. A mainstay of downtown New York theater, Kron’s crafted much of her work…
Cross Cultural
Surrounded by lit candles and recorded chants, she hunches over the small icon. Painting carefully, painstakingly, her colors are glowing gold, electric blue, blood red. "I like an atmosphere of quiet spirituality,” Sister Rosaire Kopczenski says. To make religious icons properly, she says, "Artists enwrap themselves in meditation as they paint. They say prayers before…
