Nationally Known Environmentalist to Speak at Gallery
Arriving after deadline for this week’s CP was word that National Wildlife Federation president and CEO Larry Schweiger will be in town Saturday for a talk and book-signing. Schweiger is a Pittsburgh-area native who now heads one of the country’s largest and prominent conservation groups. His new book, Last Chance: Preserving Life on Earth, explains…
Lynn Cullen Live 02/28/12
Video Archive Phone guest: Susan; today is the Michigan primary ( we want Santorum to win this one! ); adolescent girls pioneering the trend of “uptalking” & “vocal fry;” people don’t take a girl seriously if she’s giggly; if you’ve never put your lips on a bubbler, you’re probably not from Wisconsin; no one knows…
Doomtree at Shadow Lounge
The performance had the truth-fueled angst of a punk show, beats that begged for dancing and the organic flow of a cypher.
Lynn Cullen Live 02/27/12
Video Archive Pollen counts are climbing already; Rick Santorum on Meet the Press, called Obama a snob for wanting people to go to college; students of Fox News holding the Republican party hostage; a lie can’t live forever; The Duggars homeschool their kids so that they’re around all day to cook, clean, etc..; kids need…
Highmark presents Lights! Glamour! Action!
Pittsburgh City Paper was at Heinz Field for the 12th annual Academy Awards benefits “Highmark Presents Lights! Glamour! Action!” Attendees had the opportunity to film their versions of favorite movie moments at the pre-party celebration on Friday. The performances premiered on the big screen and awards were presented to the best performances at “Highmark Presents…
Dennis Roddy lives! And he may be posting in a blog near you!
As regular readers know, this space has nurtured a minor obsession over the doings of Dennis Roddy, late of the Post-Gazette and long one of the city’s finest journalists. Roddy left the P-G a year ago, to join Gov. Tom Corbett’s communications team. And while evidence of Roddy’s handiwork has cropped up once or twice…
Detroit Dealers at the Distinctively Dutch Festival
The Cultural Trust’s big three-month showcase of contemporary art and performance from Holland continued with experimental theater troupe Wunderbaum’s take on the differences between Americans and the Dutch. Last night’s world premiere at the Trust’s Arts Education Center had its moments, but still felt rather like a work-in-progress. The premise involved a business trip to…
Come Fly With Me…to Milwaukee
What’s the worst part of flying to Milwaukee? When you get off the plane, you’re in Milwaukee. Ba-dum-dum And what’s the best part of flying to Milwaukee? Hopefully for area travelers it’s the additional flights to come. On Friday, Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald announced that Frontier Airlines will recommence daily non-stop flights from Pittsburgh…
CP Video Premiere: Bluebird Midwest
New video for “I’ve Always Loved You,” by Bluebird Midwest.
Lynn Cullen Live 02/24/12
Video Archive Guest: Bill O’ Driscoll, CP Arts Editor; this week’s CP is the Money Issue; Charles Einstein’s “Sacred Economics” – – his suggestion to reconfigure our economy; when money is created, debt is created; monetizing services that used to be free; negative interest: money becoming less valuable the longer you hold on to it;…
“The Gammage Project” Talkback with Cyril Wecht
Sometimes when there are talkbacks after live dance or theater performances, the audience doesn’t seem to know what to ask, or falls back on old standbys (“What inspired you?”). No such trouble with Pitt Repertory Theatre and Pittsburgh Playwright’s world-premiere docudrama about the infamous 1995 death of black businessman Jonny Gammage at the hands of…
Samite plays Saturday at Carnegie Lecture Hall
With a tranquil voice that glides over notes like silk, East African flutist Samite delivers twelve tracks of entrancing folk music on his album My Music World. Samite, who produced the album himself, has toured the world expanding his music’s reach to countries such as Tanzania, Liberia and Kenya. He travels to Pittsburgh this week…
Lynn Cullen Live 02/23/12
Video Archive Guest: Tom Sokolowski; Bishop Zubik goes big when it comes to Lenten ashes; Jeremy Lin / ESPN headline “A Chink in the Armor;” a medium channeling Warhol; Liquor Control Board’s retail year in review; senior citizen drivers; ALL men & women in Israel have to serve a year in the military now; Fuller…
Portraits of teens, with text, make for an insightful exhibit
CLASS PICTURES continues through March 10. Silver Eye Center for Photography 1015 E. Carson St. South Side; 412-431-1810 Thu., Feb. 23, 6:30 p.m. Bey gives a free lecture and book-signing at the CarnegieMuseum of Art. Since the 1970s, some photographers have presented text with photographs to clarify social and political complexities or to enable their…
The Smiling Moose
The Smiling Moose 1306 E. Carson St. South Side. 412-431-4668 Hours: Mon. 6 p.m.-midnight; Tue.-Sat. 11 a.m.-midnight; Sun. 4-10 p.m. Prices: $4-10 Liquor: Full bar We expect chefs to focus on haute cuisine. But we also suspect they have to apply their skills to their daily meals, demonstrating — if only to family and friends…
Photographer Nadim Sabella documents his own disasters, real and imagined.
LITTLE DISASTERS continues through March 3. Boxheart Gallery 4523 Liberty Ave. Bloomfield. 412-687-8858 or boxheart.org Photographer Nadim Sabella evokes human tragedy through a notable absence of human beings. The German-born artist’s show Little Disasters, at Boxheart Gallery, represents two distinct legs of his work, each inspired by a different global crisis. The first, collectively titled…
Find handcrafted cocktail mixes at Pittsburgh Public Market
The Pittsburgh Public Market might be best known for its selection of farm-fresh fruits, vegetables and meats, but it’s also a terrific spot when it comes to libations: East End Brewery and Glades Pike Winery have ready-to-drink booze on hand, and there are a couple of vendors offering handcrafted cocktail mixes. Clarion River Organics has…
A Separation
A Separation Directed by: Asghar Farhadi Regent Square In Farsi, with subtitles A Separation, an Oscar-nominated drama from Iran, purports to revolve around the tangled emotions of a couple facing divorce, and now and then, it does. But writer/director Asghar Farhadi also unfurls an equally tangled plot that diffuses his central issue, and I’m not…
Confused about tipping in restaurants and bars? What about the “tip jar”?
The gratuity is as much a part of any dining experience as the food. “It is important to tip as a way to say, ‘Thank you,'” says Susan Timko, an etiquette-skills trainer and associate director of career services at Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz College. It’s also the way many in the food industry make their…
The Secret World of Arrietty
A family of teeny-tiny people known as “borrowers” live peacefully under the floorboards of a country home. But then one of them — a young girl named Arrietty who is just learning to go “above” to scavenge — is spotted by a houseguest, a sickly young boy. The two develop a tentative friendship, just as…
Del’s in Bloomfield gets a makeover from TV chef Robert Irvine and Restaurant Impossible
Late last year, Del’s, the longstanding Italian restaurant in Bloomfield, was the beneficiary of a “makeover” from Restaurant Impossible. The Food Network show sends chef Robert Irvine and a small crew to struggling venues, where they freshen up the décor, revamp the menu and sort out staffing and management problems. Irvine spoke by phone from…
When You Can’t Quit Your Day Job
Pete Spynda and Matt Tuite hold up two pretty different ends of the local music scene. Spynda, who’s played bass in a slew of local bands, is best known these days as the architect of Pandemic, the monthly world-music DJ night at Brillobox. Tuite, a guitarist, currently plays with the brash punk band Mud City…
Short List: February 23 – 29
Walk the red carpet down memory lane as Bodiography Contemporary Ballet presents Red Carpet Rollout, a celebration of the company’s decennial, Feb. 24 and 25 at the Byham Theater. After attending the 2011 Donate Life Hollywood film festival, in which she accidentally got in the wrong line and got the full-blown Hollywood-celebrity red-carpet treatment, Bodiography…
MCG Jazz turns 25
ONCE IN A LIFETIME: THE JAZZ PARTY. 6:30 p.m. Sat., March 3. MCG Jazz Concert Hall 1815 Metropolitan St. North Side. $100. 412-322-0800 or mcgjazz.org Marty Ashby doesn’t like the term “institution.” Yet he freely admits the word suits MCG Jazz, the music series presented at the multi-faceted Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild, which is about to…
Driving Across Puerto Rico, Fajardo to Isabella
Up over the middle, old men playing cards, tiny table & rain, bottled soda, a downpour, up over the green mountains, family party, cop car, cars parked in a yard, a young kid pushes through the crowd. You and I, after spotting chickens at the rest stop, I thought we could die in a mud…
Fist Fight in the Parking Lot releases debut album
FIST FIGHT IN THE PARKING LOT with CHUX BETA, SISTERED. 10 p.m. Sat., Feb. 25. 31st St. Pub 3101 Penn Ave. Strip District. $5. 412-391-8334 If you’ve reached that point where you’re ready to fight someone in a parking lot, you’ve abandoned some pretense, at the very least. And for some people — those who…
Pina
Wim Wenders’ film is a eulogy of sorts for German modern-dance performer and choreographer Pina Bausch. They had been collaborating on a film when she died unexpectedly, in 2009. But be forewarned: Pina isn’t a documentary. You won’t learn anything about Bausch except that she encouraged her troupe of dancers and sat at a desk. …
CD Reviews
The Borough Fields The Borough Fields (Authentik Artists) New solo material from Meeting of Important People frontman Josh Verbanets. Here, he explores the more nuanced side of his character-driven songwriting. An eclectic release that ranges from sunny ditties to hard rockers and Bay City Rollers-style nouveau sock-hop pop tunes. Oddball additions like the short, quick-to-decay…
Critics’ Picks: February 23 – 29
[ALTERNATIVE] + THU., FEB. 23 Julia Nunes is the now-classic YouTube Cinderella story. For the past few years, she has been posting charismatic performances on the video website, such as a mash-up of Justin Bieber’s “Baby” and The Supremes “Where Did Our Love Go.” Since her YouTube debut, she has garnered more than 49 million…
Taxing Times: Confusion around county reassessment tough on home buyers, sellers
In his first week in office, Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald struck a blow in a years-old dispute over the reassessment of county property values. Defying a court order to mail out new values compiled by assessors, Fitzgerald ordered county officials to use the old values instead; city homeowners who’d already received newer values, he…
Mortgaging a Safety Net: Corbett budget axes bi-partisan HEMAP program that heads off foreclosures
Once again, Americans are in for a political season in which the airwaves will be filled with charges of “socialism,” as politicians argue over government’s proper role in the economy. And it’s natural to wonder: Isn’t there any government program that people from across the ideological spectrum support? A program that can help people without…
Bank Mangement: Before choosing a financial institution, large or small, do your homework
Two years ago, when frustration with “too-big-to-fail” banks reached a fever pitch, liberal blogger Arianna Huffington launched the “Move Your Money” campaign — an effort to persuade Americans to transfer their money out of the bailed-out big banks that helped create the global financial meltdown, and into community banks and credit unions that played little,…
Pay Dirt
Have you noticed an increase in the amount of bullshit floating around lately? It’s not your imagination: Lawyers and PR flacks are among the growing job sectors in the Pittsburgh region. And while local proles have done reasonably well in terms of wage growth, their bosses have done even better. Such are the revelations contained…
Negative interest rates? Money backed by water? Author Charles Eisenstein wants to reform our money system.
More Info For the full version of CP’s interview with Charles Eisenstein go here. Money, or at least the desire for it, is at the root of our biggest problems, from injustice and economic inequality to environmental destruction. The need for money always seems to make us do the wrong thing: Hoard wealth, strip the…
Savage Love
I am a straight female whose fiancé has a fetish where he likes to watch women use the bathroom. I knew this, and I accepted it. But shitting in front of someone is hard. So we had a lovely night going, when I had to poop. We went into the bathroom together. He got very…
A new national art magazine launches by featuring Pittsburgh.
Back in 2005, when they were first pursuing careers as working artists, Manya Rubinstein and Pete Oyler lived and worked in one of the artist communities that seem to sprout up every few years in Providence, R.I., home to the acclaimed Rhode Island School of Design. But though the two were neighbors, and serious fans…
Putting the “Control” in Birth Control
Over his political career, Western Pennsylvania’s own Rick Santorum has made some remarkable statements. There’s the time he decried “the weird socialization” kids get in public school. There was that whole “man-on-dog” thing. But among his most remarkable utterances is one he made while campaigning recently in New Hampshire: “There are countries in Western Europe…
Ruthless! The Musical
Ruthless! The Musical continues through May 6. The Cabaret at Theater Square 655 Penn Ave. Downtown. 412-325-6766 or clocabaret.com What would you do for a part in a play? In the case of Tina Denmark, an adorable 8-year-old, the question is really: “What wouldn’t you do?” And that’s the dramatic fuel which fires Pittsburgh CLO’s…
Lynn Cullen Live 02/22/12
Video Archive Guest: Chris Potter; tonight is the last GOP debate; Gus the PA lottery groundhog has been fired; Santorum & Franklin Graham on Obama’s church; Santorum & Hitler; new CP out this week w/ an article on, you guessed it, Santorum!; viruses are smart; our galaxy in the universe; Dominique Strauss-Kahn held for questioning…
