UPDATE: Pittsburgh undocumented immigrant accepts plea deal, now in ICE custody
A deal has been reached that would give Martin Esquivel-Hernandez a better chance at avoiding deportation.
Have Food, Will Travel
How much food goes to waste in the United States?
Enjoy the holiday with Pittsburgh City Paper’s Christmas mixtape on Spotify
A Christmas Spotify list to help you have a happy holiday …. or not.
Lynn Cullen Live 12/23/16
Video Archive You can listen to the audio archive here. Happy Holidays! Audio Only Archive Listen to the Audio Archives on with our new Apple and Android Apps or the computer audio player.
Pittsburgh City Paper Theater Critic Rips Shakespeare on ‘Studio 360’
CP reviewer tells a national audience why the Bard stinks
Lynn Cullen Live 12/22/16
Video Archive You can listen to the audio archive here. Gay couple finally get to be legally married. Bill reintroduced to Congress. How to rest. Samantha Bee and Glenn Beck sit down for a talk. Arab YouTube star claims to have been kicked off a flight for speaking Arabic. Audio Only Archive Listen to the…
Pittsburgh’s Letters to Santa – 2016
Santa and his giant elf visit the CP offices to read letters from the people of Pittsburgh. Warning: Santa and his giant elf say the “f-word,” among others, in this video. Thanks to Terry Jones and Mike Wysocki for putting us in touch with these two.
Josh Sickels, of The Takeover UK and 1,2,3, moves on to pizza
After more than a decade playing in bands like The Takeover UK and 1,2,3, Josh Sickels is moving on to his other passion: making pizza. Next month, Sickels will open the doors at Rockaway Pizzeria in White Oak, a New York-style pizza joint staffed by his nephews and other family members. Sickels’ priority for Rockaway…
Lion
This drama tells the true story of Saroo, a resourceful 5-year-old Indian boy who travels to a strange city with his teen-age brother. They get separated, and Saroo lives on the streets and in an orphanage until a compassionate Australian couple adopts him. He grows up wonderfully, but as a young man, he becomes troubled…
In the years after a big hit and a big miss, The Verve Pipe learns from its mistakes
THE VERVE PIPE 8 p.m. Thu., Dec. 29. Jergel’s Rhythm Grille, 103 Slade Lane, Warrendale. $20-24. 724-799-8333 or jergels.com The Verve Pipe was formed in Lansing, Mich., in the early 1990s. Led by singer-guitarist Brian Vander Ark, the group got its first big break when RCA signed it to a multi-album deal. The Verve Pipe’s…
New York Times spirits writer Robert Simonson chronicles the cocktail revival
Cocktail bars continue their reign, popping up in major cities and nestling into the cultural consciousness. Now their recent history can rest on your bookshelf with the September release of New York Times spirits writer Robert Simonson’s A Proper Drink (Ten Speed Press). This is a history of the modern cocktail movement, based on 200…
Murrysville-born experimental musician Andrea Parkins approaches her work from a Rube Goldbergian perspective
ANDREA PARKINS with MORTIS, VALERIE KUEHNE 8 p.m. Fri., Dec. 23. Palanzo’s, 4614 Penn Ave., Bloomfield. $10. All ages. 412-682-0591 Rube Goldberg was not a musician. Primarily a cartoonist, he came to prominence for illustrations of devices that performed simple tasks through elaborate set of mechanisms. Goldberg’s legend was solidified by the board game Mousetrap,…
Pittsburgh’s Police Athletic League toy drive gets record number of donations
With his handlebar mustache and Pittsburgh accent, Jimmy Cvetic is an unlikely Santa Claus. But through the Western Pennsylvania Police Athletic League’s annual toy drive, Cvetic collected an estimated 10,000 toys for 46 police departments to distribute in their communities. When an editor approaches with a “feel good” story, most reporters are a little wary.…
Panic and paranoia get their day in the sun with String Machine’s debut
STRING MACHINE ALBUM RELEASE AND ARTIST SHOWCASE 6:30 p.m. Fri, Dec. 30. The Art Center, 344 S. Main St., Butler. $5. facebook.com/stringmachinemusic Threads From the Youth Fossil is a time-and-place album, capturing a young person’s transition into adulthood during a particularly tumultuous year-and-a-half. There are obvious political reasons for all that tumult, but much of…
Weird Pittsburgh: A thirsty Santa, crow crap and a cat who’s a rat
The University of Pittsburgh is fighting a daily battle against crow poop, and it’s losing. Each fall, the birds flock in from Canada and New York State to roost. This year, they’ve taken an affinity to the tall oaks on the lawn of the Cathedral of Learning, reports the Pitt-owned newspaper The University Times. Local…
Two local poets find profundity in haiku and other brief forms
Poetic brevity is nothing new. The best-known form, the haiku, with its 17 syllables, dates from the 13th century. It influenced modernism’s founder, Ezra Pound, who wrote, “The image itself is speech. The image is the word beyond formulated language.” With its focus often on nature, the form finds profundity in concision. While some practitioners…
From Super Toe to the Scorcher Chamber, a short list of favorite childhood sports toys
Christmas will be here in a few days, and as a child of the 1970s and 1980s, I get nostalgic for the awesome sports toys that Santa left under the tree during my adolescence. Here are my three favorites: Head-to-Head Football: If you didn’t get this game under your tree in the late 1970s and…
The Museum of Broken Relationships is a poignant archive
THE MUSEUM OF BROKEN RELATIONSHIPS continues through Dec. 30. 201 N. Braddock Ave., Point Breeze. brokenships.com In a way, the real beginning of any relationship is its public announcement. Legally, you haven’t been born without an issued birth certificate. And in 2016, does one really have a boyfriend unless you’re both Facebook-official? But the end…
Duckpin bowling is alive and well in Pittsburgh
To say that duckpin bowling is a lost art in Pittsburgh is an understatement. The sport is identical to the more popular 10-pin bowling, except the fat-bottomed pins are about half the size, and the softball-sized ball weighs less than four pounds. While duckpin-bowling alleys are still popular in Connecticut and Maryland, they have all…
Critics’ Picks, Dec. 22-28
[HIP HOP] + THU., DEC. 22 There is a reason that Hardo & Jimmy Wopo’s latest mixtape has a “VERY HOTTTTT” rating on Hotnewhiphop.com: It’s honestly hotter than those habañero Takis. Between its catchy hooks, ’Burgh references and features from Wiz Khalifa, 21 Savage and Chevy Woods, TRAPNESE shines as a carefully constructed trap mixtape…
Forsaken author J.D. Barker, now a Pittsburgher, anticipates his next novel
J.D. Barker’s 2014 debut novel, Forsaken, was an almost instant success. And this prominent new voice of the horror/thriller genre — who’s now a Pittsburgh resident — is just getting started. In completing Forsaken, Barker hoped to incorporate the Needful Things shop from Stephen King’s eponymous 1991 novel. He got in touch via email and…
Downtown’s Roost offers a fine-dining experience above its sibling, Revel
Roost 242 Forbes Ave., Downtown. 412-281-1134 Hours: Breakfast Mon.-Fri. 6:30-10 a.m., Sat.-Sun. 7 a.m.-noon; dinner Mon.-Thu. 5-10 p.m., Fri.-Sat. 5-11 p.m. Prices: Appetizers, soups and salads $5-18; entrees $20-35 Liquor: Full bar Roost is the upstairs, and upscale, sibling to Revel, a decidedly stylish bar on the fringes of Market Square whose “refined rustic cuisine”…
Author Jennifer Matesa talks about sex after getting sober
Jennifer Matesa has had a lot of Skype conversations about sex, some of them lasting more than three hours. The Friendship-based author recently released Sex in Recovery: A Meeting Between the Covers (Hazelden Publishing). The 220-page nonfiction book ($15.95) includes oral histories from former substance-abusers about the impact of addiction and recovery on their sex…
Cointreau Liqueur
Cointreau is an excellent addition to your home bar for mixing up holiday cocktails and punches. This triple sec made with sweet and bitter orange peels has been made since the mid-1800s and provides a warmth and balance to classic cocktails like the Sidecar and the Seelbach. Recommended by Celine Roberts Cointreau Liqueur is available…
Cheap Seats: How will Pittsburgh sports teams perform under a Trump presidency?
With less than a month to go before our country inaugurates its 45th president, we Americans are preparing to get “tired of winning,” like the new administration promises. Under Barack Obama, Pittsburgh saw some winning of its own as the Penguins bookended Stanley Cups and the Steelers won their sixth Lombardi. Even the Pirates had…
Pittsburgh City Paper Booze Battles: Miracle on Liberty vs. Acacia
Each week, we order the same cocktail at two different bars for a friendly head-to-head battle. Go to the bars, taste them both and tell us what you like about each by tagging @pghcitypaper on Twitter or Instagram and using #CPBoozeBattles. If you want to be a part of Booze Battles, send an email to…
Short List: Dec. 22-29
FREE EVENT: Fri., Dec. 23 – Art With their overarching theme of spiritual resistance, the radical works of artist and Holocaust survivor Lazar Ran are on display at the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh. The gallery, located in Greenfield, also features work by Evgeny Tichanovich and Nikolay Duchic, two artists who like Ran attended the Vitebsk…
City Paper presents Letters to Pittsburgh Santa
We know what you’re thinking — “Hey, you guys did this last year, and Santa looked different.” Well, you are right on both counts. Just like last year, we obtained, a.k.a. completely made up, correspondence from folks across the region to Pittsburgh Santa and his large-ish elf. And you were also right that Pittsburgh Santa…
Jackie
Jackie Directed by Pablo Larrain Starring Natalie Portman, Peter Sarsgaard Manor and Galleria In Jackie, Chilean filmmaker Pablo Larrain (The Club, No) revisits a shattering historical event — the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy — through the intertwined public and private experiences of one woman, his widow, Jackie Kennedy. The film moves through…
Savage Love
I’m having an issue with my boyfriend, and I don’t know if I am the crazy, paranoid, controlling party here. We have been together for more than a year-and-a-half. We had troubles early on because he has a low sex drive. It made me very insecure, and I think that’s why, at the time, I…
La La Land
You know it’s the stuff of fantasia when Damien Chazelle’s candy-colored Cinemascope musical rom-com opens with a classic Los Angeles freeway traffic jam … that magically turns into a joyful classic song-and-dance number. The self-consciously old-fashioned La La Land (itself an out-of-date derisive nickname for L.A.) aims to entertain and seduce, leavening its pretty people,…
Collateral Beauty
At a hip Manhattan ad agency, Howard is the “poet philosopher of product” — the kind of Ted Talk-ready dude who credits his success to knowing how advertising taps the “three abstractions” and gets the staff fired up with queries like “What is your why?” But that was then. Now, Howard (Will Smith) is a…
Lynn Cullen Live 12/21/16
Video Archive You can listen to the audio archive here. Marion Pritchard, a woman who hide Jews during the Holocaust, dies at 97. The case of Joseph Hall. Audio Only Archive Listen to the Audio Archives on with our new Apple and Android Apps or the computer audio player.
Lynn Cullen Live 12/20/16
Video Archive You can listen to the audio archive here. Parking troubles. Electoral college vote. Lack of restriction on gun laws. Audio Only Archive Listen to the Audio Archives on with our new Apple and Android Apps or the computer audio player.
Lynn Cullen Live 12/16/16
Video Archive You can listen to the audio archive here. Russian hacks. The most popular last names. Audio Only Archive Listen to the Audio Archives on with our new Apple and Android Apps or the computer audio player.
Lynn Cullen Live 12/19/16
Video Archive You can listen to the audio archive here. RIP Zsa Zsa Gabor. Trump will continue victory tour. Krugman writes on fascism. Storm Front keeps publishing. Luxury for the apocalypse. Trump to keep a private security detail. Audio Only Archive Listen to the Audio Archives on with our new Apple and Android Apps or…
