Drink Till You Hit the Floor at Belvedere’s roller-skating nights
Roller skating is a lot like riding a bike: Once you learn how to do it, you never forget … unless you’re chugging 16-ounce cans of beer.
Don’t Phunk With My Comics
Many of us saw the Black Eyed Peas perform at halftime during Super Bowl XLV; the hip-hop pop crossover act also opened the Steelers’ 2009 season at Heinz Field. But that’s not the end of the group’s local ties. A new comic-book biography of the group has a Pittsburgh connection that’s unrelated to the gridiron.…
New Orleans Café Re-opens
A Taste of New Orleans: The East Pittsburgh restaurant re-opens
Savage Love
I’ve written before, but I didn’t hear back — probably because my e-mail didn’t contain flogging or santorum or whatever. But I won’t be IGNORED, Dan. I’m a 32-year-old female. Second marriage, two kids: one kid with my ex and one with the man I cheated on my ex with (my current husband). My problem:…
MP3 Monday: Atlas
Howdy! Let’s not talk about that thing that everyone is talking about today. Instead, let’s talk about this: a free track from local band Atlas. A couple weeks ago I reviewed Atlas’s new EP (in brief form); it’s a solid effort! It’s an eclectic disc, and the track they’ve supplied for MP3 Monday is a…
Dennis Roddy’s farewell letter
Today was Dennis Roddy’s last day at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. I’ll have a story about it in next week’s print edition, and my understanding is that the Sunday Post-Gazette will carry a farewell piece from him. But in the meantime, if you somehow failed to notice his contributions to local journalism, you may be wondering…
Getting to Know District 1 council candidate Bobby Wilson
[Editor’s note: As we reported yesterday, city council President Darlene Harris is facing not one but two challengers in the Democratic primary this May — and their names may not be familiar to most readers of this blog. Reporter Chris Young caught up with one of them, Bobby Wilson, earlier today. Young’s take on the…
Tea Partier to run for county exec post
It’s official: Local Tea Party leader Patty Weaver is entering the race for county executive. She’s running as a Republican, of course — Weaver became a state GOP committeeperson last year, after all — though apparently the movement is still billing itself as non-partisan. About 15 minutes ago, the Pittsburgh Tea Party Movement Planning Committee…
Space Time: Nik & the Central Plains
Yo! Welcome to a new occasional feature on FFW>>. It’s called Space Time and it involves us going to local musicians’ practice spaces, talking to them a little about where they practice and why, and then having them play a song for us. Apologies for the low quality of the video; we’re print journalists. We’ll…
Getting to know District 9 council candidate Phillys Copeland-Mitchell
[Editor’s note: As we reported last night, District 9 city councilor Ricky Burgess is facing not one but two challengers in his re-election bid this year. Joining Lucille Prater-Holliday in taking him on is Phyllis Copleland-Mitchell, of East Liberty. Our Lauren Daley spoke with her about the campaign yesterday evening.] Phyllis Copeland-Mitchell is a relative…
And they’re off: Field of candidates expands in some Democratic primary races
A short time ago, I received the list of local candidates seeking the Democratic Party’s endorsement in this year’s May primary. Those letters were due today, and based on the response, this should be an interesting election season. Some Pittsburgh voters may well be treated (if that’s the right word) to three- or even four-way…
Short List: Week of February 3 – 10
Thu., Feb. 3 — Crafting It’s not often that you get a chance to be a trailblazer — literally — from the comfort of a rocking chair. Tonight’s Knit & Crochet Trail Marker Meet-Up at the Lawrenceville cards-and-crafts joint Wildcard offers such a chance: Knitting types can craft markers to hang on trees in the…
Penn Avenue Fish Company
A Downtown fish restaurant to fill the gap between humble lunch counter and snooty steakhouse
The Rite
This baroque, yet surprisingly dull, melodrama dares to tackle, with fake sincerity, the Catholic rite of exorcism. And thus, by obvious extension, the presence of the devil among us, within us!
Our stand-in, a questioning young American (Colin O’Donoghue) is sent to Rome to take an exorcism class. He’s skeptical until he starts tagging along…
Lemmy
WEBHEAD: To the uninitiated, the man at the center of this documentary — Lemmy Kilmister, the longtime frontman and bassist for Motörhead — may seem ridiculous: a mumbling, chain-smoking senior citizen dressed like a biker-cowboy and holed up in his low-rent (literally!) Hollywood apartment. (It’s like Hoarders: The Heavy Metal/Nazi Memorabilia/Pizza Box Episode.)
But by…
Inside Job
The recent global financial mess — from Icelandic banks and foreclosed homes in Vegas to credit crunches and mega-bucks corporate bailouts — is hardly the stuff of entertainment. But Charles Ferguson’s Oscar-nominated documentary is a surprisingly engaging, two-hour financial horror show. Ferguson marshals a huge amount of information into a cogent timeline, refocusing viewers on…
Another Year
What happens in an average year? A bit of this, a bit of that — small and medium moments that construct — or fray — our lives. Mike Leigh’s latest drama is a relatively small, low-key set piece in which such moments are marked during a year in the life of a comfortable — in…
Film Kitchen
As he says in the film of his spiritual journey, “I realized I had invented my own Christianity.”
Biutiful
If you can bear the sadness, Biutiful is a bittersweet gem. This tale, from Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu, is relatively straightforward — that is to say, linear and meditative, rather than frantic. It depicts a few weeks or so in the messy life of Uxbal (Javier Bardem), a struggling father of two young children…
The Illusionist
This new animated feature from French filmmaker Sylvain Chomet (The Triplets of Belleville) is gorgeous to look at, winningly offbeat and charming, but set in a decidedly minor key. The bittersweet story is set in 1959, a pivotal year for the titular illusionist, whose music-hall act is being usurped by movies, television and rock ‘n’…
Cats
If Cats is just a Furry convention on steroids, the show’s performers have always put their amateur cousins to shame.
The Time of Your Life
It takes Herculean effort to muscle your way past the theatrical changes of the past seven decades and enter into the world of the play.
Critics’ Picks: Yo La Tengo, Gang of Four, Huun-Huur-Tu and WYEP
Music highlights for the week of Feb. 3-10, from post-punk legends to throat singing.
A chat with Push author Sapphire.
“We look at a more flawed human being and we are drawn into his universe.”
In Acchord goes Gaga for the Steelers, Gene the Werewolf updates the Polka
Local a cappella group In Acchord has more than half a million YouTube views for “Steel Defense,” a Steelers-themed parody of Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance.”
Five new Steelers songs, from updated classics to Wiz Khalifa
Wiz Khalifa’s “Black and Yellow” was climbing the pop charts even before the Steelers hit the post-season; now it’s the football fight song with the most street cred.
Drive-by
A poem by Daniela Buccilli
Visitors to Steeler Nation-themed exhibit Whatever It Takes sound off.
“Since 2001 we have watched EVERY game OUTSIDE thru SNOW, WIND, RAIN, AND HAIL.”
What’s better at saving energy, efficiency or conservation?
While our machines are ever more efficient, America’s energy appetite remains unslaked.
On the Record with Judith “Jack” Halberstam
Judith “Jack” Halberstam is a professor at the University of Southern California whose specialties include cultural studies, and queer and gender theory. She speaks this week at the University of Pittsburgh Humanities Center. For a list of times and locations, go to www.humcenter.pitt.edu Are the portrayals of LGBT people in mainstream media helpful? One…
Proposed city legislation would require police to report misconduct complaints
“It’s about accountability and trust,” says David Harris, a University of Pittsburgh law professor who has been working on the legislation.
Artificial Turf: Video-game sim has Packers over the Steelers
The Packers broke it open in the third quarter, when a scrambling Aaron Rodgers hit rookie tight end Andrew Quarless — the offensive hero for the Packers — in double coverage.
Lynn Cullen’s Super Bowl Tale of Two Cities
For a Steelers-loving Green Bay native, this year’s Super Bowl is the best and worst of times
Steelers, Packers share history, colors and a whole lot of titles
This year, we’ll be unable to crack jokes about titles, Super Bowl appearances or a city’s inability to fill its bleachers during home games.
Complications Set In
The Gates building’s near-fractal-like complexity can be entertaining to view, but it continues to be difficult for frequent-but-not-daily users to navigate.
Curdish Delight
Fresh cheese, made in the heart of Lawrenceville
Crème de la crème
You’ve probably never heard of French folksinger Yvette Guilbert, whom Ezra Pound called the “heiress of the ages” in 1912. And you’re even less likely to know her booze namesake: Crème Yvette. “If blackberries and violets had a baby, it would be Crème Yvette,” says Allie Contreras, a bartender at Embury, the Strip District’s cocktail…
Hip-hop crew The Shindiggaz celebrate three solo CDs
Made up of six emcees and DJ Thermos, ShinDiggaz have hit the ground running, with a busy schedule of releases, and shows like opening for Wu-Tang’s New Year’s Eve bash at Mr. Small’s.
Savage Love
Thoughts on the minimally sexual, and “the most effective peer-to-peer safer-sex message I’ve ever read while taking a piss in Maryland.”
Interview: Kyp Malone of TV on the Radio
Kyp Malone’s finishing a TV on the Radio album, exploring new directions with Rain Machine and playing his hometown at the height of Steelers fever.
Make that FOUR candidates in District 3 — and an introduction to Jason Phillips
Most of this post will be about Jason Phillips, who announced his candidacy in City Council District 3 earlier today. But first comes word of a new (sort of) entrant in the race. As has been predicted previously, Jeff Koch apparently is running for the seat, which he held before losing it to current incumbent…
Introducing District 3 challenger Gavin Robb (AND another candidate enters the race)
City councilor Bruce Kraus has his first two challengers in the spring primary. One is Gavin Robb, an attorney at Tucker Arensberg who currently presides over the South Side Chamber of Commerce. Another — more about which anon — is Jason Phillips, a previous rival of Kraus. Robb lives around the corner from Kraus –…
