Brother John’s above-Average experimental electronica
“toy cannons” sounds like an Aaron Copeland theme set atop a simmering breakbeat.
Next for Pennsylvania: Putting Its Cards on the Table
Slots are a year off, but get ready for table games anyway.
Ambient drones from I Am Your Breaking Heart
Some musicians use 4-track cassette recorders to make great lo-fi recordings, but they’re also just perfect for fooling around.
Cats
Cats is about cats who act the way people who say they like cats like their cats to act … which is to say, like little children.
Splendid Recipes airs on PCTV 21
There’s really no focal theme at all — just general media mayhem.
Forbidden Broadway: Special Victims Unit
Forbidden Broadway is back! Pittsburgh CLO, in its cabaret space, recently closed the first, long-running edition of this New York-born spoofing staple, and has now opened a retooled version called Forbidden Broadway: Special Victims Unit. Whatever the title, FB remains a jaundiced look at the Great White Way, with satirical lyrics by creator Gerard Alessandrini…
New Townhouse Development Builds on the South Side Slopes
When developers and architects are tossing expensive yet thoughtless construction around Pittsburgh, it is a pleasure to see a development perpetuating the local flavor.
Movieside Film Festival
Some night after dinner with friends, gather around the electronic hearth with adult beverages to watch Movieside Film Festival (new to video). The Chicago-based film and performance series has assembled 20 shorts ranging from bizarrely comic to thought-provoking. It’s ideal group viewing, with as much to discuss as to laugh over. The opener, Todd Rohal’s…
Letters To The Editor: Jan. 24 – 31
Machine politics Re “Targeting ‘Modern Bullet Factory,’ POG to Block CMU Building” [Jan. 17]: Generally, you protest a war. You protest the unjust nature of war, its effect upon the soldiers, our country and the country we’ve gone to war with. You protest how harsh it is for the people in the war zone. You…
Boulevard Bistro
This neighborhood meeting-place is also a worthy destination, whether you’re craving pulled pork or something a bit more elegant.
A Conversation with Rev. Tim Smith
The K.R.U.N.K. (Kreating Realistic Urban New-school Knowledge) Movement teaches teens how to write, engineer, perform and market their hip-hop and jazz music — with a message.
Pan’s Labyrinth
Guillermo del Toro’s stunning drama is a dark fairy tale for adults, a masterfully intertwined blend of psychological drama, the fantastic, and an elegy to childhood innocence, set within the shadow of the Spanish civil war.
Broadcast Rites
“The following takes place between 7 p.m. and 10 p.m.” That’s what you hear when the lights dim at Mellon Arena: an intro borrowed from the FOX drama 24, followed by a rock ‘n’ roll montage of the Pens’ brightest stars. The first time I saw it, it hit me like Rob Scuderi. And I…
Notes on a Scandal
It’s compelling — no, thrilling — to watch these people make mistakes and try to control one another with lies, half-truths and naïve sincerities.
This Just In: Jan 24 – 31
Highlights from local TV news.
El Topo
Though the film can be derivative, self-indulgent and pretentious — the main sections are titled “Genesis,” “Prophets” and “Apocalypse” — there’s real power in Jodorowsky’s eccentric vision.
Indie singer-songwriter Jennifer O’Connor at Club Café
“Once a song is a song, it kinda belongs to whomever. I don’t feel really territorial about it.”
Hair High
Hair High feels stretched too thin, revealing more entertaining technique than cohesive comedy. (Capsule review.)
U.K. reggae legend Pato Banton
All the positive energy in the world couldn’t change the harsh realities of his gang-infested hometown.
Roll Call
On a Sunday afternoon in early December, at the Romp n Roll skating rink in Glenshaw, the last stragglers from a third-grade birthday party are being ushered off the rink to the tune of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.” The disco lights switch off and the overheads come on. And the atmosphere changes completely.…
Papa Mali’s secret musical lineage
While weirdo swamp-pop rarely scored hits, its legacy lives on.
Cop Out in Ravenstahl Scandal
There are a few rules governing political scandal. Rule No. 1 is that the original transgression isn’t what hurts you: What gets you in trouble is the attempt to hide it. That advice comes a bit late for Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, who was handcuffed during an October 2005 altercation with a police officer at…
CMU Smoking Ban Far in Future, Debated Now
Cigarette ban argument: from philosophical to stressed
Roses? Check. Chocolates? Check. Contraception? Free This Valentine’s Day
Downtown clinic giveaway likely to draw protest
Collage Aesthetic Informs Gallery Shows
Can we ignore the abstracted shape of slave shackles and experience this work as an aesthetic exercise?
Industry, Technology Themes of New Online Literary Mag
In the Steel City Review, as in Pittsburgh itself, the practical and fine arts intertwine.
Pittsburgh N’@
From mckeesport.dementia.org/blog/: It looks like McKeesport is finally getting a coffeehouse, which means that trend is well and truly dead. (Rimshot.) City administrator Dennis Pittman told the Post-Gazette that a chain coffeehouse is expected to locate in the 11th Ward, next to the new Rite Aid drugstore that will soon be open on the old…
Rehired
When Fernald called Evan back, the Q clearance took only a month, instead of two. Even with previous records that claimed him government-ready, they still ran through his past with a comb so fine-toothed they might as well be Patrice examining Mazie’s head for nits. That the government zeroed in and found nothing suspicious only…
Peduto in Mayoral Race: New Year, New Direction
New campaign manager puts South Hills in play too
Savage Love
When I was a promiscuous young man (read: straight college boy), I had lots of casual sex. I particularly loved anal sex. And I very particularly loved rough, unlubricated anal sex with those wonderful women who enjoyed the same. I swore that I would never be with a woman who didn’t love anal. But I…
