MP3 Monday: Habatat
You may have noticed that this week’s MP3 Monday is a little more of an MP3 Wednesday. Our sincerest apologies! (And if you didn’t notice, forget we said anything) This track comes from local psych rockers Habatat. “Gold” is a soulful rocker off the band’s self-titled album, which dropped today. Take a listen below, and…
Last week for The REP’s “Prussia: 1866”
One of the more distinctive things about local playwright Gab Cody’s romantic farce is that its dramatis personae include the young Friedrich Nietzsche. If that scares you off, it shouldn’t: While it’s a hook of sorts, Nietzsche’s presence occasions a proudly non-biographical portrait of the philosopher while also being, narratively, a rather minor element. That…
Public-art “forest” opens in Market Square tomorrow
“Winter Landscape” is a walk in the woods
Listen Up! Feb. 18
Every Wednesday, we make a Spotify playlist containing tracks from artists covered in the current music section or included in our concert listings or (in this case) mentioned on the CP Weekend Podcast. Think of it as a soundtrack to this week’s issue!
Concert updates: Dan Deacon, Flogging Molly, Curren$y, more!
Who’s ready for some concert announcements? You are, you say? Great! Here are some of the shows that have been announced over the last few days: On May 18, Midwest hardcore rapper Tech N9ne headlines at Stage AE, and will be joined by openers Chris Webby, Murs, King 810, and Zuse. Tickets are $25, on sale…
ICYMI: The making of our 2015 Wedding Issue
In case you wanted one last look, photographer John Colombo curated a slideshow of his behind-the-scenes photos of the CP’s 2015 cover shoot with local drag performer Lola LeCroix. Here are some of John’s favorites (our favorites, too)!
GOP County Councilor responds to Flaherty campaign attack over support of Wagner for controller
On Friday we reported on a press release from the campaign of Mark Patrick Flaherty who is running to try and regain his seat as Allegheny County Controller against current controller Chelsa Wagner. In the release Flaherty’s camp took Wagner to task for an upcoming fundraiser that features GOP County Councilor Heather Heidelbaugh as a…
Final Week for Quantum’s “Brahman/i”
Five performances remain of this engaging (and, yes, funny) “one-hijra stand-up comedy show” by playwright Aditi Brennan Kapil. Details in Program Notes.
Final Week for Quantum’s “Brahman/i”
Five shows remain through Sunday
A playlist in honor of tonight’s Ameripolitan Music Awards
On our cover last month, we ran a feature about Austin-based singer Dale Watson, who was coming to town for a show — which turned out to be fairly awesome — with Rev. Horton Heat. Watson, you’ll remember from the story, is honky tonker in the traditional country style. He also no longer refers tot…
Lynn Cullen Live 2/17/15
Video Archive You can listen to the audio archive here. We are a culture obsessed with clutter, both attaining it and getting rid of it. Vaginal reconstruction, thigh gap and bikini bridge, what will the body police think up next? Audio Only Archive Listen to the Audio Archives on with our new Apple and Android…
Review: The New Pornographers at Mr. Smalls, Feb. 13
Mr. Smalls has never felt as small to me as it did at last Friday’s New Pornographers show. The 650-person-capacity church-turned-venue was sold out, packed to the beams, and the former pulpit stage seemed woefully undersized for the Pornographers, a band of six or seven (secondary singer/guitarist Dan Bejar came and went throughout the night)…
Lynn Cullen Live 2/16/15
Video Archive You can listen to the audio archive here. Monopoly was invented by Elizabeth Magie but she was blotted out of history by Charles Darrow who stole her idea. It was originally invented to be an indictment on capitalism. Prison Industrial Complex jails almost four times as many Americans as in the 80s. Tea…
Flaherty calls out Wagner over fundraiser involving GOP Allegheny County Councilor
Keeping things interesting on a Friday, Allegheny County Controller candidate Mark Patrick Flaherty’s campaign is looking to make hay over an upcoming Chelsa Wagner fundraiser that lists Republican Allegheny County Councilor Heather Heidelbaugh as a host. The March 4 “reception in support of County Controller Chelsa Wagner” is at Downtown’s Olive Or Twist, with tickets…
Lynn Cullen Live 2/13/15
Video Archive You can listen to the audio archive here. Lynn warms to “up talk”. The weather in Boston has finally driven people to their breaking point. Should Ruth Bader Ginsburg retire? RIP David Carr. Audio Only Archive Listen to the Audio Archives on with our new Apple and Android Apps or the computer audio…
Carnegie announces “restructuring,” layoffs
Six full-time, one part-time positions fall to budget deficit
Latest CP Weekend podcast: Treat your sweetheart to monster trucks and tango
Our latest CP Weekend podcast is up for your listening (and weekend planning) pleasure.
Local nonprofits make final push as Feb. 15 open health-care enrollment deadline draws near
Grassroots campaigners are making a last push to sign people up for the federal Marketplace health care plans under the Affordable Care Act before the Feb. 15 deadline.
Lynn Cullen Live 2/12/15
Video Archive You can listen to the audio archive here. 3 young Muslims murdered in North Carolina. The problem with our lack of transparency about the effects of carrying guns. R.I.P. Bob Symon and good luck to Brian Williams during his 6 month suspension. Audio Only Archive Listen to the Audio Archives on with our…
Wedding Customs: Highland Park designer says the right dress can be a ‘life-changing’ experience
Wedding Stories: Intro Sweet Choices G-Free Options Their Big Fat Vegan Wedding Wedding Customs Something Old The Bride Wore Green Instruments of Your Love Shopping Around Gettin’ Hitched Outside-the-Box Venues Tying Your Own Knot Behind-the-scenes Cover Shoot As a fourth-generation seamstress, you could say sewing is in Jen Rocket’s blood. The 32-year-old wedding-dress designer first…
Brahmin Bulls
In Mahesh Pailoor’s new dramedy, an estranged father (Roshan Seth) and son (Sendhil Ramamurthy) reconnect in Los Angeles. Somewhere between dad’s overbearing nature and the son’s immaturity are enough shared experiences for the two to bond, as well as jumpstart their respective stalled lives. Nothing surprising here, but this is a pleasant-enough, low-key film that…
Buying a wedding dress doesn’t have to break the budget
Wedding Stories: Intro Sweet Choices G-Free Options Their Big Fat Vegan Wedding Wedding Customs Something Old The Bride Wore Green Instruments of Your Love Shopping Around Gettin’ Hitched Outside-the-Box Venues Tying Your Own Knot Behind-the-scenes Cover Shoot “Something olde, something new / Something borrowed, something blue / A sixpence in your shoe,” goes the traditional…
Girlhood
It’s infuriating that films about girls growing up are rare, and that great ones that don’t pander, or fall back on tropes, are rarer still. But this year we have Céline Sciamma’s new film, about Marieme (Karidja Touré), a teenager living in the boring concrete suburbs of Paris who kicks her childhood to the curb…
A new trend involves upcycling bridal gowns and bridesmaids’ dresses
Wedding Stories: Intro Sweet Choices G-Free Options Their Big Fat Vegan Wedding Wedding Customs Something Old The Bride Wore Green Instruments of Your Love Shopping Around Gettin’ Hitched Outside-the-Box Venues Tying Your Own Knot Behind-the-scenes Cover Shoot Evites instead of invitations. Napkins made from recycled paper. Locally sourced cuisine. It’s now easier than ever to…
Listen Up Philip
In Alex Ross Perry’s new dark comedy, Philip (Jason Schwartzmann), a self-absorbed New York City-based novelist, has an eventful few months: He loses a girlfriend (Elisabeth Moss), but gains a mentor in Ike Zimmerman (Jonathan Pryce), a once-successful novelist now living on fumes in the country. Zimmerman invites Philip to stay at his rural home,…
No Bad JuJu splits time as an original club act and a wedding band
Wedding Stories: Intro Sweet Choices G-Free Options Their Big Fat Vegan Wedding Wedding Customs Something Old The Bride Wore Green Instruments of Your Love Shopping Around Gettin’ Hitched Outside-the-Box Venues Tying Your Own Knot Behind-the-scenes Cover Shoot When you think “wedding band,” certain characteristics come to mind. It’s probably got a pretty standard repertoire (“Celebration,”…
A Conversation with Kinetic’s Joe Sheehan
KINETIC’s WORLD OF WONDER is available via iTunes and Amazon. To stream some tracks: soundcloud.com/ kineticpittsburgh Joe Sheehan is the main creative force behind Kinetic, the local jazz-inflected R&B band, which recently released its first album, World of Wonder. He’s joined in the group by vocalist Anqwenique Wingfield, guitarist Michael Borowski, bass player Jason Rafalak,…
For same-sex couples, not all wedding vendors are created equal
Wedding Stories: Intro Sweet Choices G-Free Options Their Big Fat Vegan Wedding Wedding Customs Something Old The Bride Wore Green Instruments of Your Love Shopping Around Gettin’ Hitched Outside-the-Box Venues Tying Your Own Knot Behind-the-scenes Cover Shoot The first time Travis Hunt and Stephen Simpson planned their wedding, they settled on having the celebration in…
San Diego’s Joy plays heavy blues and basically just does whatever
JOY with CAROUSEL, SHAKY SHRINES 9 p.m. Thu., Feb. 12 31st Street Pub 3101 Penn Ave. Strip District $6 412-391-8334 or 31stpub.com To hear Joy frontman Zach Oakley tell it, the band was a just natural extension of the sunny San Diego lifestyle: “Everyone just skateboards and surfs and hangs out and that’s it,” he…
Gettin’ Hitched: More couples heading to the farm for a unique wedding experience
Wedding Stories: Intro Sweet Choices G-Free Options Their Big Fat Vegan Wedding Wedding Customs Something Old The Bride Wore Green Instruments of Your Love Shopping Around Gettin’ Hitched Outside-the-Box Venues Tying Your Own Knot Behind-the-scenes Cover Shoot When it rained on her wedding day, Kristen Blocka and her fiancé, Brian, of Pittsburgh, had to move…
Local startup Nebulus teams with February Album Writing Month
In late January, an online forum for the songwriting project February Album Writing Month (FAWM) received a cryptic post from its founder, Burr Settles. “FAWM intergalactic headquarters has been working on a top-secret project with a music tech startup that should make your FAWM collabs easier and more awesome,” he wrote. That startup is the Pittsburgh-based…
Outside-the-Box Venues
Wedding Stories: Intro Sweet Choices G-Free Options Their Big Fat Vegan Wedding Wedding Customs Something Old The Bride Wore Green Instruments of Your Love Shopping Around Gettin’ Hitched Outside-the-Box Venues Tying Your Own Knot Behind-the-scenes Cover Shoot Pittsburgh Botanic Garden The Pittsburgh Botanic Garden, interestingly built on restored mine land, offers six different wedding venues…
Critics’ Picks, Feb. 12-18
[RAP] + THU., FEB. 12 The largest vocabulary in rap is coming back to Pittsburgh — with no new album in sight. Aesop Rock, who last performed at the Altar Bar in 2012 to support Skelethon, caught some extra attention last year, when data scientist Matt Daniels found that the artist used more unique words …
Tying your own knot: In Pennsylvania couples can wed through a self-uniting marriage license
Wedding Stories: Intro Sweet Choices G-Free Options Their Big Fat Vegan Wedding Wedding Customs Something Old The Bride Wore Green Instruments of Your Love Shopping Around Gettin’ Hitched Outside-the-Box Venues Tying Your Own Knot Behind-the-scenes Cover Shoot For couples who want to skip a formal marriage ceremony, usually their first thought is to just get…
New Releases
Stage Hands Stage Hands (My Idea of Fun) www.myideaoffun.org/stagehands Wildly prolific local artist Brandon Locher is fascinated with finding ways to fill the space. On his self-titled debut LP as Stage Hands, with drummer/producer Gerald Mattis, the songs are brimming with ideas to overwhelm the space. Stage Hands is in a constant state of motion…
The thinking behind a local architecture firm’s award-winning design for Haiti
Each January, architecture enthusiasts eagerly await announcement of the National Awards from the American Institute of Architects. There are 11 Honor Awards this year, and they trend toward high-dollar institutional buildings for education and research, with a boutique distillery added for good measure. The designs are invariably sleek and uncompromising, portrayed in dramatic and flattering…
International LGBT researchers come to Pitt to battle HIV-related stigma back home
To four visiting scholars in Pittsburgh, curing the global AIDS epidemic might have nothing to do with medicine. They’re not working in laboratories on the next generation of antiretrovirals, or looking for a breakthrough vaccine. They’ve been on the front lines of a problem that is at once both more elemental and infinitely complicated. Stigma.…
The City Paper Wedding Issue: A new look at a classic affair
Wedding Stories: Intro Sweet Choices G-Free Options Their Big Fat Vegan Wedding Wedding Customs Something Old The Bride Wore Green Instruments of Your Love Shopping Around Gettin’ Hitched Outside-the-Box Venues Tying Your Own Knot Behind-the-scenes Cover Shoot Do not double-check your calendars. This is not an April Fool’s joke. City Paper really is putting out…
Vanessa German’s sculptures continue to impress in a new show
THE ORDINARY SACRED continues through Feb. 28 Concept Art Gallery 1031 S. Braddock Ave. Edgewood 412-242-9200 or conceptgallery.com Concept Art Gallery’s exhibit Vanessa German: The Ordinary Sacred is an adventure in sight. The exhibition consists of eight sculptures known as “power figures” and a large collection of Black Madonnas created in a variety of materials…
Savage Love
My 15-year-old son has been watching sadistic porn — and ONLY sadistic porn — for a couple of years. He also tells us (husband and me) that, though he’s not had sex (which he defines as penetration), he’s had oral sex, handjobs, etc., and that he didn’t “flash on” violent images at those times. But…
Sweet Choices: Traditional wedding cakes don’t have to be so traditional
Wedding Stories: Intro Sweet Choices G-Free Options Their Big Fat Vegan Wedding Wedding Customs Something Old The Bride Wore Green Instruments of Your Love Shopping Around Gettin’ Hitched Outside-the-Box Venues Tying Your Own Knot Behind-the-scenes Cover Shoot Let’s face it: Most of your wedding guests are just there for the cake. (And maybe you are…
Prussia:1866 at The REP
PRUSSIA: 1866 continues through Feb. 22 Pittsburgh Playhouse 222 Craft Ave. Oakland $24-27 412-392-8000 or pittsburghplayhouse.com Prussia: 1866 is definitely for grown-ups only. I refer not to the bit of full-frontal nudity and sexual byplay in locally based playwright Gab Cody’s new comedy, but to the wealth of philosophical, political and literary ideas mixed with…
Short List: February 12 – 18
FREE EVENT: Fri., Feb. 13 — Art What’s left to say about guns? Perennial Second Amendment debates are so easily caricatured as “for” and “against.” But if you want fresh takes, and swatches of gray area, consider new SPACE gallery exhibit Unloaded. Organized by Carnegie Mellon University art professor Susanne Slavick, the group show opening…
Samuel Hazo’s Tell It To the Marines
TELL IT TO THE MARINES continues through Sun., Feb. 15 Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall 4141 Fifth Ave. Oakland $5-25 412-621-4253 or soldiersand sailorshall.org When Pittsburgher Sam Hazo writes anything, it’s important we all listen up. Stepping away from his comfort zone — poetry — the venerable man of letters has written the play Tell…
Stuff We Like
Wedding Party Jump Photos. At the photographer’s cue, the bride, groom and the rest of the gang jump as high as they can. Laughs ensue for years when looking back on the goofy faces and contorted positions made during that exuberant split second. Cake Toppers from Ready Go. Pittsburgher Nadia Marks Wojcik creates custom paper…
Existence and the Single Girl at 12 Peers Theater
EXISTENCE AND THE SINGLE GIRL continues through Feb. 21 12 Peers Theater at the Maker Theater 5950 Ellsworth Ave. Shadyside $17 412-496-2194 or 12peerstheater.org There are some worthy observations in 12 Peers Theater’s premiere production of Existence and the Single Girl. But the laughs are hard to come by in this frenetic but lumpy comedy.…
Asiatique Thai Bistro
Asiatique Thai Bistro Bakery Square 6400 Penn Ave. Larimer 412-441-1212 Hours: Mon.-Thu. 11 a.m.-9 p.m.; Fri.-Sat. 11 a.m.-10 p.m.; Sun. noon-8 p.m. Prices: Appetizers, salads and soups $4-15; entrees $9-14 Liquor: BYOB Asiatique Thai Bistro’s website catchily bills the restaurant’s owner, Ling Robinson, as “the High-Heeled Chef.” In this era of mostly male star chefs,…
Ben Sota and Jil Stifel present the hybrid dance event WaywardLand
Jil Stifel and Ben Sota present WAYWARDLAND 8 p.m. Thu., Feb. 12 $20-25 New Hazlett Theater 6 Allegheny Square North Side 412-320-4610 or newhazletttheater.org There are journeys in life, and then there are journeys of being. Jil Stifel and Ben Sota’s new work, WaywardLand, explores the idea that we’re on a journey in our human…
New bar The Commoner stands out
If you step out of the wind and through the doorway of The Commoner Restaurant & Bar, you’ll descend into a warmly lit atrium of glossy, forest-green tile, brass accents and beautifully hand-finished floors. If you take a seat at the bar, you’ll descend into a robust menu of delectable libations fit for the cocktail…
G-Free Options
Wedding Stories: Intro Sweet Choices G-Free Options Their Big Fat Vegan Wedding Wedding Customs Something Old The Bride Wore Green Instruments of Your Love Shopping Around Gettin’ Hitched Outside-the-Box Venues Tying Your Own Knot Behind-the-scenes Cover Shoot While many standard bakeries now offer gluten-free options, there’s always the potential for cross-contamination. Gluuteny, in Squirrel Hill,…
Jupiter Ascending
Jupiter Ascending Directed by: Andy and Lana Wachowski Starring: Channing Tatum, Mila Kunis, Eddie Redmayne In 3-D, in select theaters Yeah, the space opera Jupiter Ascending, written and directed by Andy and Lana Wachowski (The Matrix), is a hot mess, but it’s not all bad. In the moribund realm of big-budget franchise pics and remakes,…
412 Food Rescue aims to cut waste, relieve hunger
What to do with a ton-and-a-half of unsalable sweet potatoes? If you’re Costco Wholesale in Homestead, on Feb. 3, you call 412 Food Rescue. The fledgling project of The Brazen Kitchen blog and Braddock’s Free Store 15104 connects fresh food stores and restaurants can’t use to people in need. “We want to rescue every little…
Their Big Fat Vegan Wedding
Wedding Stories: Intro Sweet Choices G-Free Options Their Big Fat Vegan Wedding Wedding Customs Something Old The Bride Wore Green Instruments of Your Love Shopping Around Gettin’ Hitched Outside-the-Box Venues Tying Your Own Knot Behind-the-scenes Cover Shoot When veganpittsburgh.org alone lists some 50 vegan-friendly restaurants, you’d think throwing a vegan wedding here would be easy.…
Still Alice
Still Alice, co-directed by Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland, charts the unstoppable decline of Alice Howland (Julianne Moore), a well-regarded professor of linguistics, after she received a diagnosis of early-onset Alzheimer’s. She vows to fight, but what defines her — career, facility with language, independence, intimate family relationships — begins to fall away. There is…
Behind-the-Scenes of CP‘s 2015 Wedding Issue Cover
Wedding Stories: Intro Sweet Choices G-Free Options Their Big Fat Vegan Wedding Wedding Customs Something Old The Bride Wore Green Instruments of Your Love Shopping Around Gettin’ Hitched Outside-the-Box Venues Tying Your Own Knot Behind-the-scenes Cover Shoot CP scored local drag performer and makeup artist Kevin Nelson (a.k.a. Lola LeCroix) for its 2015 wedding issue…
elegy
jimmy reed in my home singing slower than the cars you know how soft we ride honey fruits touching notes so light playing out our pulse the beat of the wolf’s gate your blow is so rocking your harp is so deep our…
Lynn Cullen Live 2/11/15
Video Archive You can listen to the audio archive here. Lynn and David Powell use the hour to discuss foreign policy, the free market and where the government should be involved. Audio Only Archive Listen to the Audio Archives on with our new Apple and Android Apps or the computer audio player.
Lynn Cullen Live 2/10/15
Video Archive You can listen to the audio archive here. Obama calls ISIS a death cult but says that Christians shouldn’t get on their high horse because of all the terrible things done in the name of Christ. Map in the NY Times of where lynchings occurred and its creators intend to honor those who…
