Lynn Cullen Live 01/07/14
Video Archive Phone guest: Susan; how people are ( and aren’t ) handling the polar vortex; fill up your bathtubs in case the pipes freeze!; Peduto’s inauguration bumped behind weather, water main breaks in the news; you know it’s cold when the ski resorts close; Bill Burr on lotion; Iowa teacher loses 37lbs. on McDonald’s…
Sousa secures $300k for Braddock restaurant
In the wee hours of the morning, Kevin Sousa sat in Braddock Mayor John Fetterman’s living room, anticipating the success of their crowd-funded restaurant venture. Sousa’s phone had finally stopped blowing up with Twitter updates or alerts he gets every time someone donates to his Kickstarter campaign, an effort to raise money for a restaurant…
Progressives take the helm at Pittsburgh City Council
Bill Peduto’s swearing-in ceremony won’t come until this afternoon. But so far, it’s all going according to the progressives’ plan. There were few surprises at Pittsburgh City Council’s reorganizational meeting this morning. Bruce Kraus became council’s first openly gay council president by a 7-2 vote that followed the swearing-in of new member Dan Gilman, along…
Grand Piano to release full-length on Wild Kindness Records
Last year, local music dude Jeff Betten made Wild Kindness Records his own, and quickly set to work beefing up the label’s Pittsburgh contingent, which already included Andre Costello and the Cool Minors and Host Skull. While recent Wild Kindness signee The Big Bend prepares to release its full-length with a show this Friday night,…
Lynn Cullen Live 01/06/13
Video Archive The temperatures aren’t that bad!; how do you clean a cheese head?; Bill Peduto sworn in today; MSNBC was better w/ an eclectic crowd than just the counter to Fox News; commentary on Mitt Romney’s son adopting an African American baby; local author receives praise from Vanity Fair’s James Wolcott; piranhas aren’t that…
Legal scholar: “inconceivable” that new Corbett legal tactic will succeed in fracking battle
The argument over Act 13 — the Pennsylvania fracking law so dramatically overturned by the state Supreme Court last month — is far from over. Not only did the Supreme Court send some key questions back down to a lower court for further review, but the state has asked the Supremes to take a second…
Lynn Cullen Live 01/03/14
Video Archive Guest: Chris Potter; Pgh Public Schools closing because it’s too cold; Peduto to be sworn in on Monday; Kim Jong Un fed his uncle & others to starving dogs; Middle East news; marijuana prices; word of the day: jowl; people calling for the arrest of a Vodafone puppet; Obit: Kenneth Schechter, bomber pilot…
Environmental group rebuts concern-trolling on state court anti-fracking decision
After the state Supreme Court tossed out the state’s fracking law, Act 13, in resounding fashion last month, it was no surprise that Republicans and gas-industry execs struck a sour note. What was surprising is that they insisted the ruling would be bad for the environment — even while it was being loudly trumpeted by…
Three books on local history
Three new paperbacks peek into local history from very different angles. Pittsburgh has only six years on its oldest building. That gives Emily M. Weaver a substantial story to tell in The Fort Pitt Block House (History Press, 157 pp., $19.99), out just in time for the structure’s 250th anniversary, next year. Though built as…
Joy Katz’s new book of poems negotiates crisis with deadly seriousness and sly humor.
“I love you so much I think I’m going to be annihilated; have you tried the brownies?” Joy Katz isn’t kidding when she says this, as a one-sentence summation of her third book of poems, All You Do Is Perceive (Four Way Books/Poetry, $15.95). Well, she’s sort of kidding — about the brownies. But she…
Unsmoked Systems
We find refuge in smokestacks, warehouses and condemned Catholic school buildings turned gallery spaces, Unsmoked Systems, walls expanding to received images those who enter cannot relinquish, a bearded man walking naked holding a rifle, probably drawn by smoke or some other sign of home, now trapped in an art gallery across from Edgar Thomson Steel,…
2013 was a great year for new TV shows
This was a pretty good year at the movie theaters, but TV has been giving the big screen a run for its money. The small screen in 2013 had some clear front-runners, like moody late-’60s Mad Men and Breaking Bad’s wrenching final season. But there was other good stuff that was less hyped, tucked away…
2013 Films of Note
Here’s a year-end round-up of films that maybe slipped past you, and are worth a place on your home-entertainment schedule. Twisty-turny Thrillers: Side Effects, Trance, The Place Beyond the Pines, The East and The Counselor. All of these had interesting pedigrees, good actors and some problems. But on the small screen with lower expectations, they…
The Big Bend comes around
THE BIG BEND LP RELEASE with GRAND PIANO, ANDRE COSTELLO AND THE COOL MINORS. 9 p.m. Fri., Jan. 10. Belvedere’s Ultra Dive, 4016 Butler St., Lawrenceville. $5. 412-687-2555 or belvederesultradive.com It’s no printer’s error that led to the band Pittsburgh has come to know as Chet Vincent and The Big Bend putting out its new…
Open the Wabash Tunnel to Cyclists
Additional Articles: New ideas for a new year Open Wabash tunnel to cyclists Bring open311 to Pittsburgh Quick hits The story of bike commuting in Pittsburgh is arguably a tale of two cities. In some neighborhoods, new bike lanes and riverfront trails have carved out more room for cyclists. But if you’re in the city’s…
The Mixus Brothers make pretty music, even if they’re not family
To answer your first question: No, The Mixus Brothers are not actual brothers. Drummer Johnny Willett and banjoist/guitarist Jacob Stempky present themselves as Red and Jebbh Mixus, two hard-traveling Americana musicians dressed like old-time farm workers, as a way to “step out of ourselves as husbands and fathers and employees for as long as it…
Bring Open311 to Pittsburgh
Additional Articles: New ideas for a new year Open Wabash tunnel to cyclists Bring open311 to Pittsburgh Quick hits This winter, if you want to find out if your street has been cleared of snow, there’s an app for that. With the ClearStreets online application, users can enter their address to see in real time…
Critics’ Picks: January 2 – 8
[DOOM] + FRI., JAN. 3 Brown Angel doesn’t play locally often — it only happens a couple times a year. But even that is something of a feat considering guitarist Adam MacGregor has been living in Beijing for more than a year now. The longtime doom-metal trio has been working on new material even with…
Quick Hits
Additonal Articles: New ideas for a new year Open Wabash tunnel to cyclists Bring open311 to Pittsburgh Quick hits Sometimes the key to coming up with a big, new idea is throwing a bunch of little ideas against the wall to see what sticks. So here are a handful of proposals for making Pittsburgh a…
New Releases
Eclypse The Belgreen Sessions (Self-released) Full-length from the local alt-hip-hop MC. Understated production from Jay Card and Paco (and a couple tracks by Pav Medicinal) foregrounds Eclypse’s smart, wordy flow. Some of the hallmarks of a freestyle/battle-rap background show themselves — Eclypse plays with sounds, rhymes and consonance, moving a mile a minute and cruising…
Savage Love
I’m a 34-year-old straight female. I’ve been morbidly obese for most of my life. I’ve been on a couple of dates, and only when I asked the guy out. I am aware that some men are attracted to fat women. But since I never received real sexual attention as a teen/twentysomething, I don’t know how…
New Ideas for a New Year
Additonal Articles: New ideas for a new year Open Wabash tunnel to cyclists Bring open311 to Pittsburgh Quick hits Ask Logan Welde about the state’s top environmental problems, and you won’t hear him talk about single-use bags. But ask him to name a problem that can be solved with a relatively minor change in incentives,…
Short List: January 2 – 9
SPOTLIGHT: Wed., Jan 8 – Stage Tami Dixon’s South Side Stories premiered at City Theatre in December 2012. The one-woman show — part oral history, part tribute to one city neighborhood’s survivors — is an alternately comic and poignant work that proved so popular it earned an extended run after the holiday. And now, a…
South Side’s East Carson Street gets a venue with refined pub grub
Urban Tap 1209 E. Carson St., South Side. 412-586-7499 Hours: Daily 11 a.m.-2 a.m. Prices: Appetizers, soups, salads and sandwiches $5-13; entrees $12-32 Liquor: Full bar On the fine-dining spectrum, it used to be that at one end were the white-tablecloth establishments serving multiple, tiny, exquisite courses, and at the other end were sports bars…
Eat smarter this year, suggest local holistic health pros
Pledging to eat less is a common New Year’s resolution, but you can actually eat more this year — at least of certain foods. Local holistic health professionals suggest a range of healthy habits, from breathing more deeply and drinking more water to taking “sun breaks” — short stints outside whenever possible. But increasing your…
Locals clear hurdles on way to joining elite circle of wine pros
To advance to the top of the Court of Master Sommeliers, a wine professional needs to pass four levels of challenging examinations. The pinnacle achievement is to become a Master Sommelier, a title held by only 135 people in North America. And some locals are taking steps to join their ranks — someday. Becoming a…
Pittsburgh Market vendor VeganABC makes adapting your diet tastier
If there was one New Year’s Resolution worth keeping, it might be to consume less meat and dairy. There are the animals to think about, not to mention your own health and the threat of global climate change. (Some studies estimate that more than half of all carbon emissions come from livestock.) But, c’mon ……
Lynn Cullen Live 01/02/14
Video Archive Happy New Year!; New Years resolutions; Theresa Heinz & Christina Onassis — both heiresses?; millions of people now have health insurance & some are getting stoned in Colorado; high prices for legalized marijuana & the next states in line; do Repubs look at Scrooge & relate?; “fowl” play in Taiwan; the idea of…
Three Lists for 2013
Robert Raczka’s Five Most Surprising Art Exhibits of 2013 There’s nothing wrong with “business as usual” in art, and Pittsburgh saw more than its share of fine exhibits in established genres and forms, from skillfully rendered paintings and incisive documentary photography to labor-intensive sculptural installations. But the times they are a-changin’, and some truly outside-the-box…
