Pittsburgh Symphony Open House
If you’ve longed for a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the orchestra at work, tomorrow’s your chance. The PSO is opening Heinz Hall to the public from 7 a.m.-2 p.m. on Wed., March 2. You can actually check out an orchestra rehearsal from 10 a.m. to 12:30 pm. Tours of the building follow until 2 p.m. The…
MP3 Monday: SoulDivide
Hey! Hi. It’s Monday and it’s kinda gross outside. Good thing we’ve got an MP3 for you, right? This week’s track comes from local MC SoulDivide, formerly of Shindiggaz; it’s from his release from earlier this month with DJ Thermos, Prenutbucker Jellytime. The track is “Sterner Stuff.” SoulDivide performs live next on March 11 at…
Congo Square at Pittsburgh Playwrights
Having previewed this play for CP, I wanted to see the finished product. It was, after all, the local premiere of a work by locally based playwright Frank Gagliano, and both the script and the rehearsal I’d sat in on suggested an offbeat evocation of themes of innocence, corruption and fantasy through the lens of…
Mugshot Mania: For those who don’t think OUR content is depressing enough
On the off chance that reading City Paper hasn’t sufficiently dented your faith in human nature, we’ve got some new reading material for you: Mugshot Mania. This weekly tabloid just hit the streets with its first issue Feb. 14. And it delivers exactly what the name suggests: 16 pages of mug shuts for criminals booked…
Final Weekend of Lonesome West canceled
Point Park’s REP theater company has canceled the final weekend of performances of its current production, The Lonesome West, starting with tonight’s. The cause is a medical emergency involving a member of the cast. All remaining performances through Sun., Feb. 27, are canceled. The cancellation was announced just this afternoon. If you have tickets, the…
State Your Business: Where public employees work
With the Wisconsin state capital virtually under siege in a debate about public-employee rights and compensation, Madison has become the battleground over the future of public employment in the United States. Could Harrisburg be next? Across Pennsylvania, well over a half-million workers are employed full-time by state or local government. As of 2009,…
Short List: Week of February 24 – March 3
Male Kodo odaiko players began wearing the traditional Japanese underwear, fundoshi, after a French fashion designer saw a Kodo member wearing one while exercising and suggested it would make a good stage costume. Female Kodo performers wear kimonos; other performers wear simple Japanese robes. Drum: The odaiko (“big drum”) is made from one large piece…
Critics’ Picks: Jarrod Gorbel, The Plain White T’s, Bo Burnham, Bitch and The SUNSTAR Music Festival
Music highlights the week of Feb. 24-March 3, from politically incorrect (Bo Burnham) to politically charged (Bitch).
Pure and Simple Bistro
The South contributes some of its most distinctive flavors to a thoughtfully curated selection that, for the most part, is true to the name on the storefront.
I Am Number Four
John (Alex Pettyfer) seems like a normal human teen, but he’s actually from Lorien, hiding out on Earth to escape the Mogadorian invaders that wiped out everybody on his home planet. Ten Lorien kids escaped — three have been killed, and now John is No. 4 on the hit list.
His latest refuge is a…
Every Man For Himself
Godard, whose films are interesting even when (like this one) they’re dull, is fascinated by the futility of relationships and the way men (mis)treat women, and he’s anything but subtle about it. As much as he loves ideas, he seems to love the impossibility of love even more. You know from the start of Every…
Unknown
After a car crash, Martin Harris (Liam Neeson) discovers another man is living his life, right down to his wife and job. Lacking any identification, Harris commences to prove he is who he thinks he is. Something must be fishy, because Harris is being stalked by a dark SUV. (Prompting that existential thriller query: If…
Local dance companies create Double Fantaisie this spring.
“Aerobically it is a very difficult piece; the dancers are constantly running and jumping.”
Churchill in Short(s)?
Why would Pitt Rep bother with such pompous soliloquies?
The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
This is a big-hearted show which manages to be sentimental but never saccharine.
Too Perfect: Sarah Hobbs offers carefully controlled chaos at Silver Eye
Hobbs makes neurosis tangible through staged scenes portraying the aftermath of obsession.
Zero, One, Togetherness: Fe Gallery explores intimacy in the digital age
Getting Closer looks at a set of artists in relatively new and exploding media whose boundaries seem to change on an hourly basis.
Cornography: Ethanol has been very, very naughty to the environment
As little as five years ago, corn ethanol and other biofuels were widely hailed as a solution for everything from declining oil reserves to climate change. Less noted is what a bad deal corn ethanol is environmentally.
CD Reviews
Reviews of albums from Ivory Weeds, Matt Haimovitz and Ucello, and Nancy Galbraith.
Backstage Class: Point Park Students getting educated at Stage AE
“It’s going to provide students a leg up and an advantage to understanding this is a bottom-line-driven business,” says Steve Tanzilli, SAEM program director.
Mugged: The deal for WDUQ could leave employees and jazz fans feeling robbed
Once WDUQ officially changes hands later this year, the station will lose its call letters and be relocated to WYEP’s South Side headquarters. It also seems likely to downplay jazz programming in favor of stepped-up local-news coverage.
Saintly Celebs
According to music journalist Andrew Beaujon, there are two major differences between the Christian market and the general market: “The first is that controversy has a negative effect on album sales,” he writes. “The second is that sex does not sell.”
Trees
A poem by Rachel Hutchinson
In High(land) Spirits
A beginner’s guide to Scotch.
The Milkshake Factory
There’s no way a trip here won’t have you pining for warmer days
Sympathy for Scooby
Jeremy Coleman’s new album explores and exposes warnings against rock ‘n’ roll’s evils, even as it reinforces its mystique, and generates a feeling of apocalyptic dread.
Savage Love
A column on lady-parts … with an update on Santorum, the frothy mixture of lube and fecal matter that is sometimes the by-product of anal sex.
Young Democrats announce endorsements
The Young Democrats of Allegheny County have announced their endorsements in the upcoming May primary. The endorsees are: County Executive Rich Fitzgerald County Controller Valerie McDonald Roberts County Council 6 Steven Hvozdovich County Council 10 Bill Robinson County Council 11 Barbara Daly Danko City Controller Michael Lamb City Council 1 Darlene M. Harris City Council…
Party-switching allegations in city council district 3
A couple developments this week in the race for City Council District 3. First up is a strongly worded letter in the current South Pittsburgh Reporter. The letter notes that one of the challengers in the race, Gavin Robb, registered as a Republican in 2001. The letter accuses Robb of having then “conveniently … switched…
