Rootwire festival returns with a new venue, big lineup
Photo courtesy of Ryan Smith Since its inception some short years back, the Rootwire Transformational Arts Festival has seemed, in all of its ways, grounded — and deep — in change, of both ideas and actions. And, from Thursday through Sunday, this year’s Rootwire — with a new, festie-friendly location (Sunshine Daydream Memorial Park in…
Pittsburgh Emo Week: The week that was
It hit me when looking at what shows were happening this summer. First, it was Brand New announcing their tour, with a Pittsburgh date on July 10. Then the pieces starting falling into place, creating a week of concerts that would be “sad” and “emotional”. With that, Pittsburgh Emo Week was born, a term and…
YA novelist speaks tomorrow at Hill House
Harrisburg-based young-adult novelist Elizabeth Wein visits to discuss her World War II-themed books like Code Name Verity and Rose Under Fire. Dan Willis has more in Program Notes.
YA novelist Elizabeth Wein speaks tomorrow at Hill House
Code Name Verity author discusses her World War II novels
Final Dog Days: Downtown Franktuary to Close Next Week
Downtown hot-doggery Franktuary (ne Hot Dogma), on Oliver Avenue, is closing up shop next week. The last day to get locally sourced and creatively dressed hot dogs is Wed., July 23. That’s also National Hot Dog Day, so that’s at least two reasons to stop by for a wiener or two.Franktuary will continue to sell…
Port Authority board amends budget for Bus Rapid Transit study
The Port Authority board voted unanimously this morning to amend its $183.5 million capital budget to move $1.56 million toward a study of Bus Rapid Transit — a project that would create special bus service between Downtown and Oakland. The $4 million study is a necessary step to qualify for federal funding because the Federal…
Lynn Cullen Live 07/15/14
Video Archive Phone guest: Susan; phantom limb syndrome; NBC Nightly News leads broadcast with….a weather report; comic character Archie to take a bullet for gay friend; dangers of taking antibiotics; crossword puzzles becoming a thing of the past?; the power of poop; Western Psych employees suing after shooting last year; Caller: Clarence, Canonsburg. Audio Only…
Lynn Cullen Live 07/14/14
Video Archive Germany wins World Cup; soccer fans rage out after weather report interrupted game play; Obit: Lorin Maazel, conductor; you can attach a smoke stack to your car now; Uber & Lyft getting more attention; LeBron going home to Cleveland; the haters on stormfront.org; emotion trumps education; Callers: PJ, Greensburg / George, Moon /…
Brand New returns to Pittsburgh, after three year layoff
When you have the cult status that Brand New has, you can pretty much do whatever you want. Tour when you want. Play where you want. Do what you want. Fans will come to shows, no matter the distance. They will buy tickets, buy albums, buy anything with the band’s name on it. The Long…
Row House Cinema Gets Rolling
Boutique moviehouse continues tonight with Wes Anderson festival
Protestors claim UPMC fired workers in ‘retaliation’
Photo By Alex Zimmerman Protestors gather with signs on Centre Ave. About a hundred protestors gathered outside of UPMC Shadyside this morning — at times blocking traffic along Centre Avenue — to call attention to what union organizers say is the “retaliatory” firing of union janitors there last month. As Donald Malcolm, who union organizers…
Lynn Cullen Live 07/11/14
Video Archive Guest: Chris Potter; Jake Gyllenhaal, 50 Cent filming Southpaw downtown, turning old Saks into Madison Square Garden; bad work uniforms; Repub legislature hates Corbett more than the Dems; Lyft & Uber have $$$ behind them; the world may not be better off legalizing pot, but it won’t be worse off either; everyone should…
Mt Washington dog park to be removed
For more than two years, the dog park in Olympia Park has divided Mt Washington residents. Mayor Bill Peduto has waded into the controversy, and for the past few months he and his staff have been meeting with residents on both sides of the debate. Yesterday he announced a compromise had been reached: The dog…
Port Authority announces special budget meeting; BRT likely on the agenda
Port Authority announced today a special board meeting to consider “potential amendments” to its fiscal year 2015 budget. The meeting is expected to include a discussion on funding streams for a $4 million study of Bus Rapid Transit. The meeting will be held Tuesday, July 15,at 9:30 a.m. in the Port Authority board room —…
Lynn Cullen Live 07/10/14
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Sustainable Pittsburgh’s Green Workplace Challenge
Sustainable Pittsburgh recently announced the top performers in its latest Pittsburgh Green Workplace Challenge. The results, while welcome, also suggest how far we have to go on sustainable use of resources. The year-long competition asked businesses, nonprofits, municipal governments and universities to see which of them could improve most in energy and water usage, reduction…
GiveForward campaign launched for Karl Hendricks
One of Pittsburgh’s record store owners — and better-known indie-rockers — needs your help. Karl Hendricks, owner of Sound Cat Records in Bloomfield, has been diagnosed with oral cancer. With Hendricks unable to work this summer and the cost of his medical bills, a GiveForward fundraiser was started for him with his consent. GiveForward is…
Results of this year’s Pittsburgh Underground Music Awards
The results are in. And the winner is … a lot of people. The second annual Pittsburgh Underground Music Awards (PUMAs) were held June 28 at Penn Hills Senior High School auditorium. The goal of the PUMAs is to recognize the hard work put forth by various artists in the underground scene during the previous…
Interview: Braid releases first LP in 16 years, plays Altar Bar tonight
Photo by Mitchell Wojcik Braid (From left to right) Todd Bell, Bob Nanna, Damon Atkinson, Chris Broach The critically acclaimed album Frame and Canvas came out in April, 1998. Sixteen years later, Braid, one of the quintessential emo bands of the late ’90s, just released its new LP, No Coast, via Topshelf Records. Before the…
On the Record with Todd Porter of The Cheats
The Cheats have been in the Pittsburgh punk-rock game since 2001, and singer Todd Porter — previously of Silver Tongued Devil — has been the band’s face since day one. He talked with CP about the band’s new split LP with New Jersey’s Electric Frankenstein. Each band on the split contributed a cover song along…
Timed Travel: Amateur transit spotter tries to fill PAT’s real-time information void
Andrew’s idea of prime Downtown real estate is a crowded rush-hour bus stop. It doesn’t have much of a view, and every few minutes a bus belching diesel fumes roars past. But he’s too busy to let any of that bother him. “It’s a really good spot for transit-spotting,” he says, his face buried in…
Hidden Harvest: Nonprofit will put city’s wasted produce to good use
On Rose Smiechowski’s block in Friendship there are four types of edible fruit trees. Near Carolyn Barber’s home in Highland Park, there are five. In total, Pittsburgh is home to more than 20 varieties of edible trees whose fruit — including mulberries, pears, apples and figs — frequently lays wasted on city sidewalks. But Smiechowski…
Feeling Blue: UPMC, Highmark deal leaves Community Blue customers in limbo
Last year, UPMC told subscribers to Highmark’s new Community Blue health plan that, with few exceptions, they would have to find new doctors. For plan subscribers, UPMC was no longer an in-network provider: Even patients in the middle of treatments would need to find a new doctor — and even if they were willing to…
Bye Lines
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review publisher Richard Mellon Scaife never backed down from a fight. Even when he disclosed that he had untreatable cancer on his paper’s front page May 18, he tartly observed, “Some who dislike me may rejoice at the news.” It’s not surprising he thought so. His own paper has given little quarter to its…
Savage Love
I am a straight female who was a dominatrix for a while — and out of all the jobs I’ve had, I loved it the most. Working as a secretary — one with a master’s in writing — wasn’t that hard to beat, I guess. But I fell in love with a client. We are…
Short List: July 9 – 17
MAIN EVENT: Fri., July 11 — Showcase Of its free quarterly Gallery Crawls, the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust’s summer installment is the busiest, and surely the most humid. The three dozen venues featuring visual art and live music, free yoga classes and more are both indoors and out — the latter including the popular Summer Night…
Opera Theater’s SummerFest returns with The Merry Widow, The Fantasticks and more
OPERA THEATER OF PITTSBURGH SUMMERFEST July 10-27. Twentieth Century Club, 4201 Bigelow Blvd., Oakland. Main-stage operas: $25-75, other prices vary. 412-326-9687 or otsummerfest.org Opera Theater of PIttsburgh is launching its third SummerFest, and this annual three-week offering alights for the second straight year at Oakland’s Twentieth Century Club. The 2014 Fest leans toward the light…
Stuff We Like
Spotted in Friendship East End Food Co-Op’s Paleo Almond, Coconut & Chocolate Cookie. A more healthful treat, courtesy of the Co-Op’s in-house bakery. No unhealthy flour or refined sugar in this surprisingly moist and chewy baby — just almond butter, honey, etc. @SavedYouAClick. This public-service Twitter account defeats clickbait and deflates button-pushing social-media campaigns by giving…
Snowpiercer
Snowpiercer Directed by: Bong Joon-ho Starring: Chris Evans, Song Kang-ho, Tilda Swinton AMC Loews and SouthSide Works In English, and some Korean, with subtitles. Snowpiercer may be the first dystopic film to explore the genre’s requisite privations, violence, class struggles, lost humanity and flickering hope, all aboard a single train. Bong Joon-ho’s action thriller is…
Ladles
Ladles 516 Pittsburgh St., Springdale. 724-274-5230 Hours: Mon.-Thu. 7 a.m.-9 p.m.; Fri. 7 a.m.-11 p.m.; Sat. 7:30 a.m.-11 p.m.; Sun. 7:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Prices: Starters, soups, salads and sandwiches $3.50-10; entrees $14-24 Liquor: Full bar The little Allegheny River hamlet of Springdale doesn’t loom large in our culinary geography, but maybe it should. Ladles started…
Citizen Koch
What hath Citizens United wrought? That’s the central question explored in Tia Lessin and Carl Deal’s documentary Citizen Koch, about the 2010 Supreme Court ruling that, among other things, opened a path for huge amounts of private money to be funneled, often without explicit disclosure, into political campaigns. By way of example, the filmmakers focus…
Mount Lebanon’s Hitchhiker Brewing promises experimental approach to craft beer
Good news, South Hills beer-lovers: There’s now a Pittsburgh brewpub on your side of the Mon. “The neighborhood has really embraced us,” says Hitchhiker Brewing Co. head brewer Andy Kwiatkowski. Still, a few Mount Lebanon customers haven’t quite caught on to the “brew” part of the brewpub concept yet: “Some people that come here don’t…
The Grand Seduction
Don McKellar’s comedy is a remake of 2003’s Seducing Doctor Lewis, about a remote Canadian village trying to trick a visiting doctor into staying by employing various subterfuges. For this version, the action has been moved from tiny Quebecois former fishing harbor to one in Newfoundland. Crusty townie Murray (Brendan Gleeson) organizes the residents to…
Madonna’s returns to Downtown — with a new cuisine
Veterans of the Downtown lunch hour likely spent time at Mario Moussa’s old Mexican restaurant, Madonna’s. It occupied a couple of different storefronts from 2001 until last summer, when it was forced to close for a second time because of changes to the Smithfield Street building it was located in. Early this year, Moussa re-opened…
Tammy
Men, and particularly the man-child, dominate current comedies, so I guess it’s a form of parity that we’ve now got a woman headlining a similar slapsticky, vulgar-with-a-soft-center yuk-fest. I long for both sexes to rise above, and to see talented folks of both genders deliver smarter comedies, but it’s especially disappointing to see Melissa McCarthy…
A photographer explores an icon of contemporary African-American culture.
DAVID HARTT: STRAY LIGHT continues through Aug. 11. Carnegie Museum of Art, 4400 Forbes Avenue, Oakland. 412-622-3131 or cmoa.org David Hartt’s Stray Light is an ode not only to a building, but to an era. His installation work resonates so profoundly with me that I hope you’ll forgive a moment of nostalgia for the city…
Lee Bains III adds a punk twist to good ol’ Southern rock
LEE BAINS III AND THE GLORY FIRES 6:30 p.m. Tue., July 15. Smiling Moose, 1306 E. Carson St., South Side. $10. All ages. 412-431-4668 or smiling-moose.com “I think in the South, we have a tendency to try to be very polite,” says Lee Bains III. “Sometimes at the expense of saying what we really feel.”…
A brief for “America’s Least Livable City”
AMERICA’S LEAST LIVABLE CITY, AND OTHER WORKS continues through July 20. Pittsburgh Center for the Arts 6300 Fifth Ave., Shadyside. 412-361-0873 or pittsburgharts.org Hyla Willis is an unlikely recruit for your tourism board or chamber of commerce. Since 1999, she’s made her art mostly with subRosa, a feminist collective that explores things like the globalized…
Tim Kinsella talks emo, publishing and his regimented schedule
OWLS with HOP ALONG, GLOCCA MORA, RUN FOREVER. 7 p.m. Sat., July 12. Mr. Small’s Theater, 400 Lincoln Ave. Millvale. $15. All ages. 412-821-4447 or mrsmalls.com It might come as a surprise after hearing Tim Kinsella pour out his emotions as the leader of his myriad projects — Cap’n Jazz, Joan of Arc and once…
Brighton Beach Memoirs at Little Lake Theatre
BRIGHTON BEACH MEMOIRS continues through July 19. Little Lake Theatre, 500 Lakeside Drive South, Canonsburg $12-20. 724-745-6300 or littlelaketheatre.org Say what you want about Neil Simon (and I have on several occasions): There’s a reason he remains the most commercially successful playwright of all time. And no better explanation exists than the new production of…
Deutschtown Festival presents free music throughout the North Side
DEUTSCHTOWN MUSIC FESTIVAL 11 a.m.-midnight, Sat., July 12. Multiple venues through the North Side. Many venues all ages. Free. Full list of shows and venues: facebook.com/DeutschtownMusicFestival On Sat., July 12, the Deutschtown Music Festival will celebrate its second annual gathering on the North Side. More than 70 acts are scheduled to play a total of…
Oliver Twisted at Rage of the Stage
OLIVER TWISTED continues through July 19. Rage of the Stage Players at the McKeesport Little Theater, 1614 Coursin St., McKeesport. $15. 724-292-8427 or rageofthestage.com Sado-masochism, homo-eroticism and juvenile puns: It must be time for another world premiere from the Rage of the Stage Players. Add anti-Semitism and dystopian steampunk for Oliver Twisted, which is lightly…
Critics’ Picks: July 11 – 15
[POP-PUNK] + FRI., JULY 11 Buffalo’s Pentimento and Baltimore’s Have Mercy have a few things in common: Besides being on tour and having four members in their respective wolf packs, both bands are about to be huge in the indie and pop-punk scene. Pentimento has an edgier, punk-rock feel (think Polar Bear Club) while Have…
Third Person
Several loosely connected stories play out in this ensemble drama written and directed by Paul Haggis, and yes, similarities to Haggis’ big hit Crash are rife. There’s the slate of big male stars, including Liam Neeson, Adrien Brody and James Franco, buttressed by pretty women (Olivia Wilde, Moran Atias, Mila Kunis) and a pair of…
Lynn Cullen Live 07/09/14
Video Archive TX Republican suspects Obama has Münchausen syndrome by proxy; Will Smith coming to Pittsburgh to film movie about NFL concussions; Jake Gyllenhaal, 50 Cent filming here now; dogs & cats have human names & we treat them like humans / surrogate children; local Jacob Bacharach’s new novel is getting some major attention; Caller:…
