PPS panel recommends denial of three charter schools
From 2008 to 2013, only two charter school applications have been approved by the Pittsburgh Public School District out of 15 proposed. On Feb. 2 at a PPS education committee meeting, the district’s charter school review teams recommended the denial of an additional three charter applications. If the PPS board of directors follows these recommendations,…
Lynn Cullen Live 02/4/14
Video Archive Phone guest: Susan; Missouri bill to make official state greeting the high five; immigration opinions; love for Antiques Roadshow; the killing of stray dogs in Sochi; Chris Christie attacks David Wildstein in memo; Woody Allen’s sexual abuse allegations; Low T — it’s a part of normal aging, people!; major droughts for California, Australia;…
Allentown mayor Pawlowski withdraws from Gov’s race; endorses McCord
Confirming reports from late last week that he was ending his campaign for Governor of Pennsylvania, Democratic Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski officially withdrew from the race and threw his support behind Pennsylvania Treasurer Rob McCord. “It has been a good campaign and we have accomplished several of our key objectives, most importantly, drawing attention to…
Exhibit celebrates black comics icons
Evans, Ormes and Baker honored at City-County Building
Lynn Cullen Live 02/3/14
Video Archive Awful Super Bowl, the refs should have called the game; recap of commercials; Obits: Philip Seymour Hoffman / Maximilian Schell; Woody Allen’s sexual abuse charges; what people are naming their children in Brazil; some places around Pgh have 5 inches of snow; Callers: Michael, Polish Hill / Clarence, Canonsburg / Joe / Unknown.…
Food bank for UPMC workers slated for Monday
Congressman Mike Doyle and local labor leaders will sponsor a food bank Monday afternoon for UPMC employees “who are otherwise unable to afford groceries,” according to a press release. “In the wake of President Obama’s call on business leaders to raise wages and improve living standards for all American workers, Rep. Mike Doyle and community…
New Interactive Art Coming to Market Square
“Congregation” is the North American debut for famed British artists
Lynn Cullen Live 01/31/14
Video Archive No Potter today; can’t imagine a life without laughter; flags at half staff today for Rocco; police dogs should wear bulletproof vests; Lynn Cullen the author; Luke Ravenstahl started his own business; Kitten & Puppy Bowls this Sunday; PG Letter to the Editor about Henry Clay Frick; musicals then & now; Jon Stewart…
Courtney Noelle mixtape release party at Enigma Lounge
Courtney Noelle Pittsburgh’s own Courtney Noelle is the first lady of the independent label Taylor Gang, founded by local rap star Wiz Khalifa. Noelle, who has been singing since she was 6, has finally found her home with the label. Noelle has been on tour with fellow Taylor Gang artists Wiz Khalifa and Juicy J…
One Pittsburgh pops in on Daryl Metcalfe over “paycheck protection” bill
Charlie Deitch Members of One Pittsburgh question staff members of state Rep. Daryl Metcalfe about his whereabouts. Angry about legislation aimed at stopping the state from deducting union dues from most public employees, about 20 protesters — led by One Pittsburgh — rallied outside the Cranberry Township office of state Rep. Daryl Metcalfe (R). Fresh…
State Dems announce budget priorities
In an effort to draw contrasts against one of the most politically vulnerable governors in the country, state Democrats outlined their budget priorities in simultaneous press conferences around the state earlier today. State sens. Jay Costa, Matt Smith and Wayne Fontana, speaking to a room of beneficiaries of various social services at Mercy Behavioral Health…
Lynn Cullen Live 01/30/14
Video Archive Phone guest: Erin Ninehauser, PA Health Access Network; getting warmer outside!; John Fetterman wore shorts to Obama event yesterday; heroin found in East Liberty McDonald’s Happy Meals; feeling worse about a police dog getting hurt than a human officer; winter storm hit the South hard; Wendy Bell’s WTAE story about small business employees…
Obama visits US Steel
The morning after President Barack Obama delivered his state of the union address, he made a stop near Pittsburgh at the U.S. Steel Irwin Plant in West Mifflin. Reiterating much of what he said the night before, Obama focused on his plans to help the working class in 2014. “Too many Americans are working harder…
Chamber Music Society names new executive director
The Pittsburgh Chamber Music Society named a new executive director today. Kristen Linfante comes to PCMS from Apollo Fire – The Cleveland Baroque Orchestra, but is already a Pittsburgh-area resident, and serves on the board of commissioners in Mount Lebanon. She is a violist herself in addition to having arts-management experience. The PCMS, which has…
Outreach organizations count homeless tonight
Outreach organizations and volunteers will try to get a handle on how many homeless people there are in Allegheny County tonight by doing something simple: walking the streets and counting them. “We’re never sure what we’re going to find on a typical day,” says Jim Withers, founder of Operation Safety Net, an organization that provides…
Residency questions hit close to home for Peduto appointee (UPDATED with FOP content)
When Mayor Bill Peduto announced his executive team shortly after the November election, he boasted about its diversity — and about the fact that he had reached beyond city limits to attract top-tier talent. He even joked that the hires would help him fulfill a goal of attracting 20,000 new residents to the city. But…
New Jasiri X video “Checkpoint” based on trip to Middle East
This week’s paper (hitting stands today) contains my feature on R.A.R.E. Nation teaming up with Jasiri X and 1Hood to bring a series of shows and talks by hip-hop figures to town. On Feb. 6, the collaborative’s first event will be a talk with hip-hop producer and artist 9th Wonder and Jasiri X. Just the…
Chiharu Shiota transforms the Mattress Factory’s newest space, partly with yarn
TRACE OF MEMORY continues through May 31. Mattress Factory at 516 Sampsonia Way, North Side. 412-231-3169 or www.mattress.org The Mattress Factory has expanded to include a small, 19th-century North Side row house a few doors down from its main facility. Trace of Memory, by Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota, is the space’s premiere exhibition. This spellbinding…
Grit & Grace
Grit & Grace 535 Liberty Ave., Downtown. 412-281-4748 Hours: Mon.-Thu. 11 a.m.-1 a.m.; Fri. 11 a.m.-2 a.m.; Sat. 4 p.m.-2 a.m.; Sun. 4-10 p.m. Prices: $6-20 Liquor: Full bar Sometimes it’s tempting to think of restaurants as movies. After all, some of them do come packaged with plots, sets and characters. Grit & Grace, a…
At City Theatre, The Mountaintop treats King’s final hours with imagination, audacity and humor
THE MOUNTAINTOP continues through Feb. 9. 1300 Bingham St., South Side. $15-40. 412-431-2489 or www.citytheatrecompany.org On April 4, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated while standing on a Lorraine Motel balcony in Memphis, Tenn. In town to support striking African-American sanitation workers, King had delivered his famed “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” address…
Local baristas test themselves in regional competition
If Pittsburgh is indeed “the new Portland,” as a Washington Post blog claimed in 2012, then it’s no surprise the local craft-coffee culture is on the rise. The Commonplace Coffee Company — which boasts two Pittsburgh shops, a roaster in Larimer and a growing presence on restaurant tables — is becoming a big part of…
Pittsburgh Dance Council brings troupe from shantytown to Downtown
COMPAGNIE KÄFIG performs 8 p.m. Sat., Feb. 1. Byham Theater, 101 Sixth St., Downtown. $19-55. 412-456-6666 or www.trustarts.org Perhaps there is no better illustration of dance’s ability to cross socioeconomic lines than the two works on Compagnie Käfig’s current 14-city U.S. tour. Based in Lyon, France, the troupe for this tour features an all-male cast of…
Locals offer portable draft-beer system
A few years ago, Albert Ciuksza and Todd Barnett wanted to enjoy cold draft beer on a weekend camping trip with friends. “We built our own jockey box (an insulated, portable draft-beer system),” says Ciuksza. Unfortunately for the campers, “It didn’t work so well.” The trip did provide inspiration. Ciuksza, Barnett and two partners (who…
The 2014 Oscar-nominated Animated short films screen
Oscar-nominated Shorts Animated and Live Action (two programs) Starts: Fri., Jan. 31. Regent Square It’s the red-carpet season for films, and despite the proliferating awards shows, the Academy Awards still carry the most weight. And it’s the forum that bestows the most prestigious prize on those often overlooked gems of the art form, the short…
Conflict Kitchen’s latest cuisine focuses on North Korea, and that country’s food challenges
When Conflict Kitchen announced its new cuisine would be North Korean, it prompted a common question. Says cook Gabby Toborg: “A lot of the reaction we’ve been getting has been people questioning the food — like, ‘What are you going to serve?'” Conflict Kitchen is an Oakland takeout restaurant that serves cuisine from countries the…
The 2014 Oscar-nominated Live Action Shorts
In this year’s slate of Oscar-nominated Live Action Shorts, two comedies bring some levity to a program dominated by heavier subject matter. Selma Vilhunen’s “Do I Have to Take Care of Everything?” (Finland, 7 min.) portrays the universal comedy of getting a chaotic family ready for a wedding. Circumstances are decidedly odder in “The Voorman…
Gimme Shelter
An angry teen (Vanessa Hudgens) from a troubled home seeks out her long-estranged father, a Wall Street broker (Brendan Fraser). But her pregnancy complicates the reunion, and she winds up on the streets. Luckily, she is taken in by a woman (Ann Dowd) who runs a home for pregnant teens with no family support. Ron…
Quilt returns with majestic Held in Splendor
QUILT with SHAKY SHRINES, BUTTERBIRDS. 9 p.m. Tue., Feb. 4. Brillobox, 4104 Penn Ave., Bloomfield. $8-10. 412-621-4900 or www.brillobox.net Based on the name alone, it isn’t hard to imagine an album called Held in Splendor by a band called Quilt as yet another exercise in twee Americana: the soundtrack to an Etsy buying binge, or…
The Beagle Brothers get a gig playing for a groundhog
GROUNDHOG DAY 2014. Gates open 3 a.m., Beagle Brothers play national anthem at 6:15 a.m. Groundhog activity about 7:25 a.m. Gobbler’s Knob, Sportsmen Park, Punxsutawney. groundhog.org None of the members of The Beagle Brothers has personally witnessed the Groundhog Day festivities in Punxsutawney before — but they have been to Gobbler’s Knob. “We were asked…
Critics’ Picks: January 29 – February 1
[POP-PUNK]+THU., JAN. 30 Jacksonville, Fla.-based Yellowcard has been at it for a while — the pop-punk band, which throws in some classical influences via violin, is best known for its 2003 hit “Ocean Avenue.” The latest on the five-piece’s radar? A re-imagining of the 2003 Ocean Avenue album — this time all acoustic. Want to…
Future Travel: Is $200 million for Downtown-Oakland BRT the best public-transit investment?
For more than 100 years, the one constant in Pittsburgh’s transit history has been the desire to give public transportation the right of way … and the inability to do it comprehensively. A 1906 study proposed “a system of underground railways” including “a downtown loop with a radial line to the east and several intermediate…
Director Dismissed: Some call Astria Suparak’s Miller Gallery departure a ‘mistake’
Alien She, the exhibit of riot-grrrl culture at Carnegie Mellon University’s Miller Gallery, won’t be the first show curated by Astria Suparak to reach beyond campus. A recent “critic’s pick” by Artforum magazine, the exhibit will soon visit cities like Philadelphia, Portland and San Francisco — as have other exhibits Suparak has assembled. This time,…
Pittsburgh Left: Five things we learned about the eight Dems running for Pennsylvania governor
Despite treacherous road conditions, nearly 500 residents packed into McConomy Auditorium at Carnegie Mellon University, on Sun., Jan. 26, to hear from the eight Democrats hoping to unseat Gov. Tom Corbett in November. The candidates are: John Hanger, former Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection; Jo Ellen Litz, Lebanon County commissioner; Pennsylvania Treasurer…
Lost Cause
Everyone who takes the bus knows the feeling: You step onto the curb, the doors close behind you, and as the bus pulls away, you realize you’ve left something behind. A cell phone. A Medicare card. A wooden sword. Your dentures. We’ve all been there. Or at least one rider — who presumably left the…
R.A.R.E. Nation teams up with Jasiri X and 1Hood on new hip-hop collaborative
Pittsburgh hip hop finds itself at a crossroads in 2014. In the early 2010s, everything was on the up-and-up: Local rappers had made inroads nationally, and Wiz Khalifa and Mac Miller became the city’s biggest hip-hop exports ever. For a time, it felt like the rising tide brought about by the Rostrum Records and Taylor…
Savage Love
I’m what was once quaintly called a “woman of a certain age” who started reading your column to broaden my horizons. As a result, I summoned the courage to join an online BDSM dating site. I got a response almost immediately from a man who proceeded to tell me my name would henceforth be Sub,…
Lynn Cullen Live 01/29/14
Video Archive “It’s time to do away w/ workplace policies of the Mad Men-era” this & more in a SOTU recap; was Joe Biden texting?; reactions to climate change, FLOTUS was maybe overdressed; Northwestern’s football team wants to unionize; universities getting wealthier & tuition keeps going up; Obama in Pgh today; Pittsburgh is one of…
My Girl — A Love Poem to Myself
When she says the word nice, it comes out mice and scampers away. She likes the way its toenails click on the linoleum, its pink tail slipping behind the pantry. How its tiny teeth bite deep, sending large men to the hospital for a vaccination, something to stop the throbbing. When she says the word…
Artifice and impersonation are a big unspoken theme in the Carnegie International
THE 2013 CARNEGIE INTERNATIONAL continues through March 16. Carnegie Museum of Art, 4400 Forbes Ave., Oakland. 412-622-3131 or www.cmoa.org In their statement for the 2013 Carnegie International, curators Daniel Baumann, Dan Byers and Tina Kukielski touch on several themes that dictated their choices. However, one theme that became evident, while not directly stated, is that…
Short List: January 29 – February 8
SPOTLIGHT: Sat., Feb. 1 — Dance Song, music, dance and the richness of the African diaspora come together in Asase Yaa African-American Dance Theatre’s ballet of Drum Love, presented by Kente Arts Alliance, at the North Side’s New Hazlett Theater. With Drum Love, the Brooklyn-based troupe will make its Pittsburgh debut, having performed around the…
