LGBT Group Comes Out With Endorsements
Get it? “Comes Out”? Hahahahaha. Just kill me. Anyway, I’ve been overdue in noting this, but the Steel City Stonewall Democrats have released their endorsements for the May 2009 primary. Perhaps the most notable outcome is that Patrick Dowd edged out Luke Ravenstahl for the mayoral endorsement. If it’s any consolation to Ravenstahl, who has…
Murphy’s Blah
I thought it was just me at first, but apparently Schultz saw it too: One high point of President Obama’s speech was watching him blow off US Rep. Tim Murphy whilst entering the chamber for his speech before Congress last night. I wish I had video — can anyone point me toward some? (Re: Schultz’s…
Today in political insurgency headlines …
Despite the misgivings of naysaying quislings such as myself, Georgia Blotzer is taking another shot at city council district 2 — a post she lost in a special election earlier this month. In a feisty press release, Blotzer noted that while she was compelled to run in the special election as an independent, this time…
Heads Together
I doubt whether I can bear to drag myself to this venerable video shop’s liquidation sale, which continues through this Sat., Feb. 28. I moved to Pittsburgh in 1991, and the place quickly became one of my cultural way stations — then as much for its used-book annex (called the Bookworm), quality magazine rack and…
If it’s Sunday, it’s another agenda-driven story in the Tribune-Review
Well, here’s a shocker: the Tribune-Review carrying water for its publisher in the news section. The Trib has some talented folks working for it, but their efforts are often undermined by the agenda of its owner, Richard Mellon Scaife. This happens so often as to be nearly a dog-bites-man story (or, as the Trib might…
MP3 MONDAY: “Off-White Noise” by Mariage Blanc
This week’s MP3 offering: “Off-White Noise,” by local band Mariage Blanc, from their October EP, Broken Record. The band doesn’t plan to record anything new until this fall, but there are plenty more listens left on this fine debut. Here’s what I said about the song in my review of the EP: “The second song,…
Clarke M. Thomas: A reminiscence
This space marks the passing of Clarke Thomas, the Post-Gazette senior editor and editorial writer who died this weekend. His voice was considered, considerate, and always worth listening to: steeped in a love for Pittsburgh, but never afraid to call upon us to be better than we were. He was also one of the most…
Mad About the Boy
When announcing his candidacy today, Pat Dowd offered up an intriguing role model for the kind of mayor he’d like to be: Following in the footsteps of a mayor that I’ve come to admire as a result of the people that I’ve met and heard stories from — Pete Flaherty — I stand here today…
Back to Neverland: Benjy Ferree comes to the Thunderbird
Here’s a pick we didn’t get in the paper this week that’s worth checking out: Sunday night (Feb. 22) at the Thunderbird Cafe, Domino recording artist Benjy Ferree appears along with Tim Fite and Deleon. DC’s Ferree, in his new record, Come Back To the Five and Dime, Bobby Dee Bobby Dee, is channelling a…
A Conversation with Martin Bisi, Part 1
Our conversation with legendary producer and musician Martin Bisi ended up at much, much greater length than we were able to accommodate in our print version, so we’re running the full conversation here, in two parts. Bisi performs at Garfield Artworks at 8 p.m. Wed., Feb. 25, with Microwaves, Gangwish and Midge Crickett. (The show…
Wendy and Lucy
Sometimes falling off the grid happens quickly — and quietly — as seen in this new indie drama.
Pat Dowd Kick Off (With Sound!)
Patrick Dowd formally kicked off his mayoral campaign today, before a crowd of about 50 supporters atop Polish Hill. Dowd maintained that the blustery February weather was proof that “winds of change” were blowing … but trust your correspondent on this one: It was just freakin’ cold. Dowd offered at least a partial answer to…
Stranded
Survivors of the famous 1972 Andes plane crash tell their powerful story in this doc
Flash Bulbs
At the Bidwell Center, orchids inspire passion and promise
This Just In: February 19 – 26
Highlights from the local TV news: Delano on auto-pilot.
Freedom Square Diner
Breakfast all day, crabcake Devonshire and pancakes stuffed with chocolate hit the spot at this Cranberry eatery.
The International
Interpol agent’s single-minded pursuit of a nefarious global bank forms the spine of Tom Tykwer’s muddled thriller. The globe-hopping film feels as if it was poorly condensed from a massive beach novel: Some plot points feel underdeveloped, while at other times, the action stops to let a character fill in a lot of backstory. The…
Confessions of a Shopaholic
Rebecca (Isla Fisher) is a twenty-something who can’t stop buying designer clothing, even as she plunges deeper into debt and compulsion. Oh, tra la la! P.J. Hogan’s comedy is adapted from two of Sophie Kinsella’s best-selling pink-sleeved Shopaholic novels. The timing of this film is dreadful: In the New Financial Now, nobody feels much like…
Waltz With Bashir
The subject matter of Ari Folman’s unusual documentary is no less important for being so often told: If the particular massacre at the center of his film — in 1982 at Sabra and Shatila, two Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon — isn’t well known to everyone, wartime atrocities are. But Folman has found a new…
With dance and original live music, Attack Theatre hits the mark in Passion Reflected.
Eggar’s dulcet crooning in both English and Spanish of songs with lyrics like “Sifting the soul’s remainder” were a perfect backdrop to the dancers’ piercing glances and crisp group dancing.
The Lark
What else could explain why Hellman’s written Joan of Arc, dead at 19, like a 50-year-old college professor?
FreeMan in Paris
In contrast, actor Herb Newsome is positively amazing.
Martin R. Delany: The Pittsburgh Years
The artificiality of the conventional one-person show is ameliorated by Jamal’s easy charm as the young Delany, countered by the force of his anger in later years.
Savage Love
I dropped by four large universities last week — University of Lethbridge, State University of New York–Albany, University of Maryland and University of Alaska-Anchorage — to do “Savage Love Live,” the college-speaking-gig version of my column. I enjoyed visiting all four campuses and, as ever, learned a few things on the road. (Brinking? Who knew?)…
Fighting Back
Rankin’s Meza-Clay looks to get back on top after tough loss
Nueva Voz
Spanish-language newspaper provides a “new voice” for Hispanic community
Extant Music label chronicles local musician Brian Kruman’s sonic explorations.
Under the alter-ego of “Berish Bin Yankil Bin Naftali Bin Yakub Bin Zicia Krumani,” Kruman reinterprets the milieu of the first Golden Age of Spain.
Soup’s On … the South Side
The Mid-Winter Soup Contest heats up the South Side this weekend.
Local acoustic trio Between Liberties releases debut album, From the Lamplight
Between Liberties’ songs can offer an almost Springsteenian obsession with down-and-outers and blue-collar workers.
Local guitar-and-drums duo Br’er Fox releases The Bitter Struggle with Duality LP
“To be honest, every time we’ve had a bass player, it hasn’t worked,” David says. “It makes it not interesting, it kind of kills the edge.”
A Conversation with Martin Bisi
“The apocalypse is just a theme; it’s not like thousands of years went by without people thinking the world might end.”
Dowd-Hearted
A campaign gets underway at the 11th hour
Work by several artists makes Group A’s exhibit Fusion worth a look.
Inside each, the viewer sees a small, blurry yet suggestive video of fleshy masses and seemingly erotic moments.
