More hot data-crunching action with Ricky Burgess
So, you couldn’t get enough of my wonkery on councilor Ricky Burgess’ efforts to overhaul city council’s use of CDBG money, could you? Back for more already. Well, I’ve got the cure for what ails you: a closer look at an alternate funding formula based on my last thrilling post. The background: As fans of…
Burgess’ Burgeoning Debate
Fair warning: This is going to be a LONG damn post about the reforms city councilor Ricky Burgess plans to propose in council today. It’s a little about the reforms, and a bit about Burgess too, and what makes him tick. But whatever else it is, it’s long. You can speed things along by checking…
Council weighs in on arena worker dispute
As we first reported a few weeks ago, a labor dispute has been breweing between employees at Mellon Arena and Aramark, the firm that holds the concession contract there. Aramark has notified workers that they must apply for their jobs when the arena is shuttered, and the Penguins move to the new Consol Energy Center…
Finally, a story about parking that doesn’t feature chairs
You know what my retirement plan is? The luncheon meat known as Spam. Lots and lots of canned Spam. Keeps forever, and it’s more substantial than a 401(k) has proven to be. Plus, you can build housing from the tins. A Spam-based investment strategy means I miss out on a lot of great investment opportunities,…
MP3 Monday: Pairdown
You know the drill: it’s time for everyone’s favorite file extension-day of the week combination, MP3 MONDAY! This week, we bring you a track by the folky, complex Pairdown. The band — mainly David Leicht and Raymond Morin, with some help from friends — provided us with the title track from their LP, Holyklye. It’s…
Rebecca Skloot at Creative Nonfiction Relaunch
Further proof that The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks merits both its plaudits and its sales came Wednesday night, when author Rebecca Skloot spoke and read an excerpt at the packed relaunch party for the periodical Creative Nonfiction. The book tells how some tissue samples taken from a poor Baltimore woman who died a half-century…
Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death — as long as I can find my mittens
Earlier this week, I posted the full text of the Tea Party Movement’s Declaration of Independence. And there’s no question the Tea Partiers take themselves seriously — at 1,900 words, the Tea Party Decleration is nearly 50 percent longer than the original signed by our founding fathers. And both documents end the same way –…
Students try to pressure Casey on college-loan debt
When four University of Pittsburgh seniors traveled to Senator Bob Casey’s office Downtown today, they weren’t looking for extra credit. They were hoping, instead, for a bit less debt. OK, I promise to swear off cheesy education-related metaphors for the rest of this blog post. Which is an object lesson — sorry! — in how…
Poll Positions
There’s been some new polling on statewide races from Franklin & Marshall College. As the P-G has already noted, overall the results suggest that not much has changed: For one thing, massive numbers of people haven’t picked a candidate for governor yet. But I’d like to hone in on one weird little finding in the…
Short List: Week of February 25 – March 4
Two young men in Victorian England are best friends. One is a utopian who trusts that science will perfect civilization; the other believes human nature is inherently brutal. That these comrades happen to be H.G. Wells and the man who’s secretly Jack the Ripper is one conceit of Time After Time, the Karl Alexander novel…
Experimental screening series Jefferson Presents … marks its 10th anniversary.
“There’s a pure visual splendor to what she does.”
Shutter Island
Two federal marshals — Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his new partner (Mark Ruffalo) – investigate a missing murderess on Shutter Island, a home for the criminally insane. Daniels grows increasingly suspicious about what’s really going on at the island, but the harder he searches, the more elusive the truth seems. It’s as if he…
Trib Total Media: Prepare to be assimilated
It’s hard not to notice that the Tribune-Review has undertaken a fairly pugnacious advertising campaign lately. “Trib Total Media dominates the Pittsburgh market,” blare advertisements slapped on billboards and buses.”See what’s next.” The first time I saw these ads, they were accompanied by the somewhat incongruous image of an ocean-going cargo vessel in the foreground,…
The White Ribbon
The black-and-white drama follows a year in the life of a village in northern Germany, in 1913. As the moment of Archduke Ferdinand’s assassination approaches, and the narrator — the town’s 31-year-old school teacher, recalling the past from old age — presages terrible things about to happen, world war is not really what he’s talking…
Sweetwater Grille
The menu of steak, seafood, pasta and other Italian fare is classic but not fusty.
This Just In: February 25 – March 4
Highlights from the local TV news: Chair-Brained
The Inspector General
Chemers keeps the plot and better dialogue intact, but he embellishes the story with insane slapstick and cesspools of dirty phrases.
The Hot Button
A look at this week’s most intriguing issues — and why you should care
Coal Futures
When engineers and politicians say “clean coal,” they never mention mining itself, or coal ash.
Set for Court
Protester cited for name violation gets trial date
Back Wages
Councilor’s living-wage measure not getting a lot of support
Labor Pains
When two unions fight, is anyone looking out for the workers?
Acclaimed Aspen Sante Fe Ballet makes its first visit to Pittsburgh.
“We found that every time we had a new choreographer come in the company went up a notch.”
A Toonseum exhibit celebrates a nearly forgotten comic book that aided in the struggle for civil rights.
“Martin Luther King gave direct edits of this comic book.”
Pittsburgh melodic punks Voice in the Wire reunite, re-release album
“Man, I remember being stranded out West, and it doesn’t seem so long ago.”
Composer Anthony Coleman visits this weekend for two concerts
“I didn’t get to release any chamber music until I was 50, when I suddenly got two records out at the same time, which was hysterical.”
A Conversation with Sondre Lerche
“I like the contrast of the studio being the place where you have endless tools to express and fulfill whatever potential was in the song.”
Amidst gloomy news about libraries, the North Side’s new Carnegie Library is a bright spot.
This space’s central volume is characterized by a roof structure, essentially invisible from the street, that rises at an angle on elegant wooden beams to create clerestory windows at the top.
Colonizing the Cosmos boldly goes where many have gone before: the concept album
“It’s not a sci-fi album, though we use a lot of cosmic terms. It’s about things that affect everyone.”
Tin Front Café
Vegetarian options highlight a charming new café on Homestead’s main avenue
Savage Love
I’m writing to you to settle a dispute between my husband and me. We’re not terribly adventurous, but we’re not totally vanilla, either. However, my husband constantly pesters me to have anal sex. We have tried it in the past, and I don’t enjoy it AT ALL. But my husband will not stop pestering me.…
