The Year That Was
Looking back, I guess it wasn’t so bad a year in movies after all. No, not Hollywood movies. Those piss me off more than ever.
Women are behaving radically in the Frick’s Off the Pedestal.
Seeing this show is glimpsing a counterculture. Like, maybe, in the 1980s stumbling into a little bar to see Throwing Muses when all you’ve previously watched is Madonna singing “Like a Virgin” on MTV.
Little Children
Little Children is at once sociology and dark social satire, the sort of movie that tries too hard but that you’re glad to see, a respite from all the crap that doesn’t try at all.
Have Pittsburgh city councilors ever been called “aldermen”? I used to see “alderman” signs on an old building.
If Pittsburgh’s political history teaches us anything, it’s this: You can never have too many politicians. Why else would we have 130 municipalities in Allegheny County alone, each with its own bevy of officials? Because our ancestors wanted us to govern the heck out of each other, that’s why. So yes, Pittsburgh did used to…
Children of Men
You don’t spend this much money on battle scenes and special effects just to tell people that the world is coming to an end.
Radical Middleman
“The downside of a middle class, at least from the perspective of the conservative power structure, is that people get uppity.”
Digging Deeper
The big digs were sparked by a cryptic piece of rock art and fueled by a “diary” dictated by his mother, channeling the spirit of a Spanish explorer whose party buried the supposed booty.
Review Board May Be Forced to Drop Gunpoint Confrontation Case
Legal charges are interfering with a Hill District mother’s efforts to involve the Citizens Police Review Board
Karma on Eighth
This restaurant is about trying to get right with the world, choosing sustainable foods and international preparations whose impact on the planet is soft.
Another Denomination to Try Clergy over Gays’ Church Roles
“We fought hard to make the case that my ministry here is consistent with all other expectations and requirements for the ordained clergy.”
Letters To The Editor: Jan. 3 – 10
Feedback from our readers
Chaoz da Blakjak’s The Alchemizt
“First news the Post-Gazette or the Tribune-Review can’t review.”
The Medium’s Message
Nostradamus? Please. The guy who wrote the Book of Revelations? Out of his mind. Jeanne Dixon? We won’t even touch that. Predicting the future isn’t just a gift; it’s an art form, best left to the experts. But why worry about next year’s world or national issues at all when there’s going to be so…
Triggers release power-poppy debut EP
With this kind of a start, Triggers just might be next year’s model.
The Raccoonists, Pittsburgh’s first post-rock supergroup
“One of the things I like about Raccoonists is how we can practice for one day and somehow have enough material for an hour.” — Andres Ortiz-Ferrari
Out With the Old (?)
When Chelsa Wagner started knocking on doors in the South Hills this summer, residents might have first thought she was selling Girl Scout cookies, not running for state representative. “I can’t imagine what people thought,” Wagner says, laughing. “I had my hair pulled back into a ponytail and tons of freckles on my face. I’m…
ActionReaction’s inventive alterna-pop
Guess what, kids — there’s life after emo.
If Aliens Are Predators, These Suspect Stats Lead to Only One Conclusion
Conservative stats on alien killers were beginning to seem overheated, like an illegal during a desert crossing
Freedom Writers
Sigh. Another well-meaning youth-oriented film, inspired by a true story, and designed to unite us all in a big warm hug of happy diversity and — bonus — triumph over adversity. An earnest high school teacher (Hillary Swank) reaches her L.A. ‘hood charges — an assortment of blacks, Latinos, Cambodians and one white guy –…
Sober Up, Santorum
When you are humiliated beyond belief at the ballot box, you must seek the last refuge of a political scoundrel: claim to be a visionary.
The Painted Veil
Even a nasty cholera epidemic doesn’t detract from the armchair-traveling pleasures of this prettily filmed if somewhat dull melodrama, set in a remote corner of China during the 1920s. Amidst the beautiful scenery, two Britons — a research doctor (Edward Norton) and his unhappy socialite wife (Naomi Watts) — learn, through time and travails, to…
Out of Sight, Not Lost
I’m deep in earth, my home the oozy mud or deep-cracked fissures. Long ago I took to depths as if my element lacked sight. No light unless I tunnel up, eat my way through soil. Surfacing, I’m blinded, what comes toward me a blur. I burrow, safe though sightless. Don’t try to find me. –…
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
In the muck of 18th-century France, a child is born in the streets. This damned creature, Jean-Baptiste, grows to be a loveless idiot-savant, whose one skill is an acute sense of smell. He apprentices as a perfumer, but eventually resorts to murder in a mad quest to isolate and bottle the elusive aroma of pretty…
Black Tie Revue finally inks record deal
“We’ll still have problems paying the rent.”
Thr3e
The perennial struggle between good and evil is pitched quite literally in Robby Henson’s thriller, in which an unassuming seminary student (Marc Blucas) is pursued by a maniacal unseen killer. The low-budget Thr3e, adapted from Ted Dekker’s novel, is a pastiche of serial-killer clichés pulled from earlier films such as Se7en (goofy title not included),…
Savage Love
Advice from sex columnist Dan Savage
Printing Impresses
Each year, Artist Image Resource invites several regional professional artists who aren’t necessarily printmakers to create original prints or print-related work. The Tenth Annual Projects Exhibition features an intriguing array of work made with equipment and expertise from the North Side workshop and gallery. Ten black-and-white screenprints by Joseph Lupo utilize the iconographic speech and…
Police Drama
Do you ever feel like Pittsburgh is a little too much like a small town? I mean, you go to a bar, say, and meet someone who’s just your type … until you find out they work with your ex. Or you’re a police commander, say, who suspects misconduct from a would-be supervisor … who…
Guided by Linoleum
In the early 1990s, members of the Industrial Arts Co-Op began visiting Pittsburgh’s ready supply of abandoned industrial buildings, seeking materials to recycle for art projects. Among the stuff scavenged by Bill Miller, a group co-founder, were scraps of linoleum and other patterned flooring. At first, Miller used it all simply to matte his paintings.…
War Milestone Marked by Anti-War Groups
“We want people to recognize the 3,000th death — and recognize it’s not just the 3,000th American soldier that has died.”
