Franken’s Sense
Jews and comedy — who knew they went together? The local Hillel Jewish University Center is hoping they’ll bring young people closer to Judaism in whatever form — socially, culturally, ethnically or religiously — when Al Franken is the headliner and a Second City troupe is added for flavoring. It could be, says spokesperson…
Too Hot to Handel
When Christopher Hahn describes how Pittsburgh Opera’s foreign artists obtain their work visas it’s with typical operatic bombast: “Byzantine,” and “perfectly Kafkaesque.” But while the Opera’s artistic director feels his organization understands the rules — and the quirks — of the post-9/11 immigration system well enough to manage, there are still moments when the bureaucratic…
Bush League
“AWOL-Gate: Were Portions of Bush’s Military Record Scrubbed in 1997?” If W. won’t come clean about his service record, one possibility is that he can’t. On Democracy Now! (Feb. 13), reporter James Moore discusses his research into the allegation “that portions of Bush’s military record were thrown away in 1997 after a top Bush aide…
Black History Re-Mixed
Harold Taylor was a hit before he became a recording engineer for Motown in the ’60s — he was hit by a car on his way to the interview. Still in high school, Taylor kicked off — on his good foot — a six-year career at Motown, where he helped record and mix some of…
Correction:
In “Trade Show and Tell” (Feb. 11), sponsorship of a bathroom redecoration offered at the Pittsburgh Indoor Outdoor Home Show should have been credited to Radio Disney AM 540 Pittsburgh.
Roustin’ Chuck Owston
Somewhere in the hills east of McKeesport, singer and guitarist Chuck Owston was thumbing through the back pages of a music magazine. “Wanted: Blues Musicians,” the ad read. The solicitor was KFFA’s King Biscuit Time radio show out of Helena, Arkansas, a small Delta town of about 6,000 resting across the river from its more…
I’ve always wondered why Pittsburgh doesn’t have and hasn’t had a rail system to get around. I’ve never gotten a straight answer. Perhaps you can help?
What? No rail service in Pittsburgh? Doesn’t the “T” count for anything? Well, OK: It doesn’t. At least, not unless you live in the South Hills, that land of milk, honey and regular trolley service. The sad thing is that Pittsburgh did once have a highly sophisticated rail system: trolleys, interurban cars, commuter…
Consulting the Crystal Brawl
Minutes from the March 11, 2004 meeting of the Committee on Finance and the Budget: Councilors present: LEONARD BODACK, TWANDA CARLISLE, ALAN HERTZBERG, JIM MOTZNIK, LUKE RAVENSTAHL, DOUG SHIELDS, WILLIAM PEDUTO, SALA UDIN and GENE RICCIARDI, president. MR. RAVENSTAHL moved to discuss Bill No. 2004-0122, an ordinance to amend the Pittsburgh Code, Title…
The Deliberate Strangers/Chuck Kinder/Lee Maynard
If our national culture so often considers Pittsburgh a punchline — the place the movie’s bumbling burglar comes from, or where the jet-setting celebrity’s plane is grounded for 24 zany hours — then, I ask, whither West Virginia: A state whose half-jokingly touted cultural capital is an afternoon’s drive — and a legal border –…
The Fog of War
In films such as Gates of Heaven and Fast, Cheap and Out of Control, the quirky, ironic, nihilistic documentarian Errol Morris introduces us to the accomplishments, philosophies and inner lives of fringe oddballs and powerless nobodies. But now, in The Fog of War, he examines the outer life of a very mainstream oddball and powerful…
If our national culture so often considers Pittsburgh a punchline — the place the movie’s bumbling burglar comes from, or where the jet-setting celebrity’s plane is grounded for 24 zany hours — then, I ask, whither West Virginia: A state whose half-j
How do you emerge from the early ’90s West Coast hip-hop scene at the height of gangsta rap as a rapper with a pierced nose and lip, no Jheri curl or perm, an album called I Wish My Brother George Was Here and a song called “MistaDobalina”? Not possible, you say? Well somewhere…
50 First Dates
It’s not a good sign when your own star vehicle has to open with an extended sequence of people exclaiming how awesome you are — in this case, an assortment of tourists who swoon over their holiday fling in Hawaii with one Henry Roth (Adam Sandler). Let’s be honest: Sandler is not most people’s idea…
Video Activism Videofest
Despite the admonition that “the revolution will not be televised,” it’s almost certain that the revolution — or even a peaceful protest march — will be videotaped. The ubiquitous nature of today’s cameras combined with inexpensive and available technology to store and disseminate footage means any political event open to the public can be “covered”…
Zero Day
Andre Kriegman and Cal Gabriel don’t fit the profile. They’re bright kids who share a benign sardonic wit, and when they talk to Andre’s video camera, an 18th-birthday gift from his slightly existential father — “Who needs Prozac when I got you, Dad?” quips Andre, the rhetorician of the pair — they seem like…
Against the Ropes
The world of boxing is surely a tough place for a gal to get ahead, and the real-life story of Jackie Callan’s determined transformation from fan and promoter’s secretary to manager of top contenders is probably an interesting tale. But, whatever drama or nuance Callan’s life held is utterly flattened in this rote bio-pic directed…
Thank You for the Music
By Jane McCafferty Perennial. 210 pp. $12.95 (paper) There are many mothers in the 14 short stories comprising Thank You for the Music, the new collection from Jane McCafferty. One of them is Patricia, who learns in “Berna’s Place” that her 25-year-old son, Griffin, has married a 60-year-old veterinarian. During an awkward first meeting,…
Eurotrip
Four horny teens from Ohio ramble across Europe on a summer vacation-slash-quest for a hot German chick. Europe is besmirched in the following fashions: England is full of soccer hooligans, including the braying Vinnie Jones; the Louvre turns out to be an endless admission line; Amsterdam is a big sex-and-drugs rip-off; Italians are apt to…
Looking After Leeper
“See, that’s why you’re a dick,” said Steve Leeper, the outgoing head cheese at the Sports and Exhibition Authority. Why use such language with your intrepid correspondent? It’s because I believe him. I’d just told him that despite the “rat deserting the sinking ship” buzz about his imminent departure to a big-deal job in…
A Conversation with Ryan Milisits
How did you get started in chess? My dad taught me … he’s been playing for 40 years. He started taking me to tournaments, and I started getting serious about it. You’d said that you sort of specialized in speed chess. Why do you like it? There’s a lot of pattern recognition, playing by instinct.…
Questioning PATRIOT-ism
The USA PATRIOT Act gives law enforcement increased power to wiretap, monitor e-mail, search homes and obtain personal information when there’s suspicion of terrorist intent. It has been used locally to bust a drug ring. But the controversial law itself is at the center of City Hall’s latest mystery: Who’s backing various alternative anti-PATRIOT resolutions…
Bringing in the Sheaths
The panelists at the Feb. 15 forum “The Secret War on Condoms” offered lots of reasons why condoms were a good thing: Used correctly, they prevent pregnancy and the spread of AIDS and other scourges. But by the end of the 90-minute-long forum, one sensed that the best reason to encourage use of condoms may…
Messengering the Shooters
Nathaniel Glosser imagines a flotilla of anti-gun activists gliding down the Allegheny River past gawking members of the National Rifle Association, peering out the windows of the David L. Lawrence Convention Center during their national convention April 16-18. As lead organizer preparing to counter the NRA’s annual gathering, Glosser sees a lot of possibilities…
