Listen Up! Dec. 9
Every Wednesday, we make a Spotify playlist containing tracks from artists covered in the current music section. Listen below!
“Sunset Baby” in final week at Pittsburgh’s City Theatre
Six performances remain of potent three-character drama
CMU student creates cool maps of Pittsburgh bike-share stats
See where the most common routes are and what neighborhood has the most riders who choose to bike home after a beer or two.
Critics’ Picks, Dec. 10-16
[RELEASE PARTY] + SAT., DEC. 12 The 31st St. Pub closed its doors forever earlier this year, but for those who remember the grimy watering hole fondly, a Canada-based production company called “Punk Rick’s Videos” is releasing Yinzer Fest 2015. The DVD features performances from several Pub mainstays including The Cheats, Thunder Vest, The Legendary…
Pittsburgh’s Wage Review Committee releases report supporting $15 minimum wage for hospital workers
A Wage Review Committee established by Pittsburgh City Councilor Ricky Burgess is recommending Pittsburgh support local workers’ fight for $15/hr
Concert announcements:Grounders, Elle King, Julia Holter, more
Just a smattering of announcements today, check em aht! On Dec. 28 at the Smiling Moose, Rage Against the Machine cover band RATM2, Through These Walls and Shad Ali play a benefit for American veteran volunteers in Iraq and Syria. Also coming to the Smiling Moose: rapper Whitney Peyton on Jan. 7 ($10-12, on sale now);…
Pittsburgh celebrates Hanukkah
Annual Menorah Parade marks beginning of Hanukkah in Pittsburgh.
Campaign 2016’s Silly Season: A Weekly Tweet Round-Up Dec. 7
Campaign 2016’s Silly Season: A Weekly Tweet Round-Up Dec. 7
MP3 Monday: Stillborn Identity
This weeks track comes from local indie rapper Stillborn Identity. Stream or download “Mean Clicks Don’t Give a Damn” from his new EP, Slow and Steady, below. Download link has expired, sorry!
Lynn Cullen 12/07/15
Video Archive You can listen to the audio archive here. Psychological studies in times of fear. Cease Fire Pittsburgh. Audio Only Archive Listen to the Audio Archives on with our new Apple and Android Apps or the computer audio player.
What you need to know about Pittsburgh news this week
In Pittsburgh this week, marchers protest ties between corporations and the Allegheny County Executive, popular activist and artist Jasiri X gets honored, and police arrest suspect in connection with shooting of Muslim taxi driver.
Pittsburgh City Councilor Burgess’ proposal could benefit disadvantaged neighborhoods
New Pittsburgh City Council proposal would identify neighborhoods most in need of community planning resources.
Final Weekend for Quantum’s “Chickens in the Yard”
Actors double-cast as birds in unique show
Lynn Cullen 12/03/15
Video Archive You can listen to the audio archive here. The San Bernadino shooting. Kobe says goodbye to basketball in a poem. Audio Only Archive Listen to the Audio Archives on with our new Apple and Android Apps or the computer audio player.
Moth GrandSLAM event set for Saturday at Pittsburgh’s New Hazlett
Winners of monthly StorySLAMS to compete at New Hazlett Theater
CP Weekend Podcast – Dec. 4 – 6, 2015
This week: Book fairs, benefits and rock shows galore
Collaborating troupes explore the idea of editing in dance
SHANA SIMMONS DANCE AND THE MOVING ARCHITECTS PERFORM OBJECTIVE I 8 p.m. Fri., Dec. 4, and 8 p.m. Sat., Dec. 5. Alloy Studios, 5530 Penn Ave., Friendship. Admission is pay-what-makes-you-happy. 412-363-3000 or kelly-strayhorn.org What if Monet or Rodin had editors? How would that have affected their artworks? Would George Balanchine be considered as great a choreographer…
‘Grammer Lessons
Video by Ashley Murray
An exhibition addresses the absence of black voices in museums
EXPOSURE: BLACK VOICES IN THE ARTS continues through Dec. 11. University Art Gallery, Frick Fine Arts Building, 650 Schenley Drive, Oakland. haa.pitt.edu/art-gallery Exposure: Black Voices in the Arts confronts the poor representation of African-American artists in American museums. The show, at the University Art Gallery, posits that the problem might be the lack of museum…
Savage Love
I’m a straight female in my mid 20s. I’ve been dating a wonderful guy for two years — but I recently found something that has put me on edge. Before we met, he was in a relationship with a terrible, alcoholic and mentally unstable woman. They got pregnant early in the relationship and stayed together…
Oliver Twist opens at PICT, Yinz’r Scrooged at Bricolage and more
The year’s final big week of theatrical openings includes the re-emergence, after layoffs and a canceled show this fall, of PICT Classic Theatre. Though still struggling financially (even as it plans its 2016 season), PICT stages Oliver Twist, artistic director Alan Stanford’s dramatic adaptation of the Dickens classic about an orphan adrift in London. The…
I Shook Oscar Peterson’s Hand in Pittsburgh
Either he was in the Top Shelf drinking after finishing at Heinz Hall March 12, 1979 or — I was putting on a first baseman’s mitt his hands were so big my wife used to say big hands means either a big watchamacallit or — girls laughing out loud their legs twitching like clarinets haha…
Chi-Raq
Chi-Raq Directed by Spike Lee Starring Teyonah Parris, Nick Cannon Starts Fri., Dec. 4. AMC Loews and SouthSide Works Spike Lee’s splendid new movie, Chi-Raq, is disturbingly spot-on: a story of gang violence in a troubled Chicago, released just days after we saw a police shooting there that looks — at least on the video…
Wysocki: Bob Rager and Point Park basketball deserve a wider audience
Head coach of the Point Park Pioneers men’s basketball team is probably the toughest coaching gig to get in Pittsburgh. Since 1989 only one person has held that job — Bob Rager. In the history of college basketball in the city, Rager’s 368 wins (and counting) are the most for a coach at a four-year…
Doc evoking region’s steel past — and present — featured at Film Kitchen
FILM KITCHEN 8 p.m. Tue., Dec. 8 (7 p.m. reception). Melwood Screening Room, 477 Melwood Ave., Oakland. $5. cinema.pfpca.org “They won,” reads graffiti on the overgrown, busted-in building in Ross Nugent’s “Steel Mill Rolling.” The 12-minute 2013 documentary, a blend of landscape and industrial film, captures what’s left of the former Sharon Steel plant, near…
Stuff We Like
Fallout 4. This game from Bethesda Softworks offers a post-apocalyptic virtual gaming world that is probably bigger than a lot nearby communities. It’s challenging, frustrating and will take hundreds of hours to complete — all good things. Carmi’s Fish Stew. Full of spices and flavor, this generously proportioned stew is a must-have start to any…
Entertainment
In the opening scene of Nick Alverson’s film, a comedian, played by Gregg Turkington, kills to a full house. With his greasy comb-over and grimy tuxedo, he’s a throwback to the long-gone Las Vegas lounge comedians who traded in off-color humor in the wee hours of the morning. In this room, he tells sophomoric, unfunny…
Janis: Little Girl Blue
This new documentary from Amy Berg looks at the life and career of rock star Janis Joplin, who died in 1970, just weeks before the release of her solo LP Pearl. It’s an intimate and moving portrait, told through interviews with family, bandmates and friends (including Dick Cavett); archival footage; and Joplin’s own words (as…
Labyrinth of Lies
Referring to thousands of German soldiers who worked in the death camps during World War II, a frustrated investigator says: “They came home, hung up their uniforms and carried on as if nothing had happened.” Giulio Ricciarelli’s docudrama examines what happens when, in 1958, the Frankfurt Public Prosecutors Office decides to identify and try for…
The World of Kanako
A disgraced former cop searches for his missing teenage daughter, and discovers her twisted secret life, full of drugs, gangsters and troubling relationships. Tetsuya Nakashima’s nonlinear drama is a two-hour descent into violence, perversion, horror and amorality. It’s got some style, at times suggesting graphic novels or various dream states, with some of the more…
Brooke Annibale makes strong connections through vulnerable songwriting
For Pittsburgh singer-songwriter Brooke Annibale, being a musician is 20 percent writing, recording and performing, and 80 percent everything else. The business of making art is just that — a business. There’s marketing and PR (talking to American Songwriter magazine, for instance, or to City Paper on her first “free” Saturday afternoon in months); pitching…
Denver’s Yawpers are starting to make a lot of noise
The Yawpers with The Armadillos 9 p.m. Fri., Dec. 4. Thunderbird Café, 4023 Butler St., Lawrenceville. $8. 412-682-0177 or thunderbirdcafe.net It’s the day before Thanksgiving and The Yawpers are driving somewhere across Kansas on the way to a show. The cell phone has dropped out for the third time during City Paper’s conversation with Nate…
Locally based, internationally touring show Jump with Jill uses music to promote healthy eating
You probably won’t hear any of Jill Jayne’s nutrition-themed dance songs in the club. But for the three-quarters-of-a-million elementary-school students who have been to a Jump With Jill concert, and who listen to her albums at home, she’s a household name. A decade ago, Jayne, a Pittsburgh native, was studying to become a registered…
Short List: December 2-8
Fri., Dec. 4 – Holidays While Black Friday is a red-letter day for some, Pittsburgh’s arts community doesn’t really break out its yule log until the first week of December. Exhibits A, B and C are three established shows of various tenures. It’s year 14 for Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre’s The Nutcracker (Dec. 4-27), artistic director…
Critcs’ Picks, Dec. 3-9
[ROCK] + FRI., DEC. 4 Even though Garland Jeffreys is a contemporary of the Velvet Underground — he attended Syracuse University at the same time as Lou Reed and played guitar on John Cale’s 1969 album, Vintage Violence — Jeffreys remains an underappreciated figure in rock history. His most famous single, “Wild in the Streets,”…
Cucina Vitale
Cucina Vitale 2516 E. Carson St., South Side. 412-481-8000 Hours: Mon. 7 a.m.-3 p.m.; Tue.-Thu. 7 a.m.-9 p.m.; Fri. 7 a.m.-10 p.m.; Sat. 8 a.m.-10 p.m.; Sun. 8 a.m.-3 p.m. Prices: Antipasti, soups and salads $3-12; pasta and risotto $14-25; entrees $20-32; specialties $40-52 Liquor: BYOB Many a restaurateur has been inspired by a family tradition…
New Releases
Pierogi Pizza Smoke (Self-released) www.facebook.com/pierogipizza In the opening track, “Please Show Me How,” Jody Perigo (a.k.a. Jody Pierogi) asks, “What does it take for a guy like you to fall in love with a girl like me?” It’s the first of several self-deprecating, old-timey torch songs which would be sugary enough to require a toothbrush,…
Lawrenceville’s The Vandal takes a casual approach to high-quality food
THE VANDAL 4306 Butler St., Lawrenceville. 412-251-0465 or thevandalpgh.com The Vandal grabbed the attention of the Internet this past Halloween when the Lawrenceville café dressed as the restaurant from the TV show Bob’s Burgers, complete with a banner reading “Grand Re-Re-Re Opening.” But while The Vandal’s burger is one of the most popular items (“I…
Finding a place to stay can prove difficult for Allegheny County’s transgender homeless community
Ten years ago, the Bethlehem Haven emergency women’s shelter was faced with a decision. Homeless transgender women were turning up at its doorstep and the shelter’s administrators had to decide whether to admit them. For Marcia Snowden, who lived as a nun for 36 years, it was a no-brainer. “I didn’t wrestle with it at…
Wigle gets in the holiday spirits with its first grappa and absinthe
The fun-loving and innovative distillers at Wigle Whiskey are bringing the liquid cheer for the holidays with the release of two spirits in December: a grappa and an absinthe. Unlike Wigle’s flagship spirit, whiskey, neither liquor has strong historical ties to Pennsylvania. But each contributes to and explores Pittsburgh’s growing food and beverage industry. …
At 75, Edgewood’s Verna Crichlow still rocks her steel drums and her Caribbean Vibes
“Same old noise!” Verna Crichlow laughs, her hands quick around the steel-drum pan, trilling the notes. If it’s noise, it’s the kind of noise that can’t help making the crowds smile. At 75, Crichlow hobbles a bit getting over to her instrument, sitting on its stand in her art-crowded Edgewood home. But her Caribbean Vibes…
City Paper and SteelCityGrammers team up for Homewood photo essay
Video by Ashley Murray
Lynn Cullen 12/02/15
Video Archive You can listen to the audio archive here. Paris summit on climate change. Beijing performance artists. Facebook’s fortune. Is Cruz waiting for Trump to drop out. Audio Only Archive Listen to the Audio Archives on with our new Apple and Android Apps or the computer audio player.
Lynn Cullen 12/01/15
Video Archive You can listen to the audio archive here. Yale and Woodrow Wilson. The origin of E.S.T and development of Landmark. More attacks on Planned Parenthood. Audio Only Archive Listen to the Audio Archives on with our new Apple and Android Apps or the computer audio player.
