In promotional giveaway, Pirates survive unforced error
As Pirates boosters know all too well, their team has a tendency to cripple itself with errors. But a recent Pirates gaffe — involving a promotional giveaway — may for once be giving fans something to smile about. As the team’s June schedule boasts, fans attending the Pirates’ June 18 home game against the Cleveland…
UPDATE: State backs off free-speech regulations at Point State Park
Late last week, I wrote about a potential confrontation between the ACLU and the state’s Department of Conservation of Natural Resources, the agency that manages Point State Park. But almost before the fight began, the state is suspending the regulations that attracted the ACLU’s ire. According to a press release just issued by the ACL: …
Tossing Softballs to the Football Star
So I finally got around to watching Ben Roethlisberger’s interviews with Sally Wiggin and Bob Pompeani this weekend. And I was shocked by the total lack of contrition, the blatant failure to learn anything from previous mistakes. Not on the part of Roethlisberger. On the part of local media. How bad were these interviews? Let’s…
Quantum Theatre’s 2010-11 Season
Quantum artistic director Karla Boos has needled me (more than once) for something I wrote last year, a fall-theater roundup that seemed to imply that Quantum was playing it safe by staging the musical Candide. My point was merely that, in a down economy, theater companies tend to edge toward name works by name talents,…
Quick hit: New Big Hurry vid!
Hey! I know, two in one day, right? What’s up with us? Just dropping back in to tip you off to this brandy-new video from Big Hurry. Gorgeous set, beautiful camera work, sweet song! What the hell else do you want from these people?!?! “Silver Screens” is available for the viewing here on the Youtube.…
MP3 Monday: Seán O’Donnell
I know, I know. It’s been a while since the last MP3 Monday. “Where are the MP3’s?” you ask. “What’s taking you so long?” Well: truth be told, it stems from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster. There’s been a severe shortage of MP3’s lately because the technicians who convert .wav files to MP3…
All these Democratic committee posts will end soon, I promise
This post contains a quick (?) update on the statewide ambitions of Jim Burn, the Allegheny County Democratic commtitee chair who wants to head up the party’s statewide apparatus. It also discusses some potential rules changes that may be coming down the pike in the years to come … and offers yet another installment of…
ACLU tussling with state over Point State Park regulations
The ACLU may be headed for a confrontation with the state’s Department of Conservations and Natural Resources, thanks to the agency’s policies regarding political activity at Point State Park. Vic Walczak, the ACLU’s state legal director, tells CP that he has heard complaints from Green Party political activists who have been around the park in…
What’s up weekend
Hey bloggies. Time to talk about what’s going on this weekend. This one’s loaded, so pay attention. Tonight (Friday), the Three Rivers Arts Festival brings us a doozie with Justin Townes Earle opening for Kris Kristofferson. Then if you choose to move on to the bars, there’s local faves Mariage Blanc and Delicious Pastries (in…
More blanks fired in gun ordinance dispute
The playwright Anton Chekhov once said that if there’s a gun on the mantlepiece in Act I, it must go off before the play ends. That may not be true of gun-control legislation, though. As we’ve previously reported, a city ordinance requiring that gun owners report lost-and-stolen firearms has yet to be enforced — despite…
Whistling past the graveyard … and other news
A little follow-up on my column this week, about Marcellus Shale natural-gas leasing rights being sold in the city. In recent days, there’s been a spate of rumors that the historic Allegheny Cemetery to allow drilling beneath its grounds. The rumors were pervasive enough that yesterday, city councilor Patrick Dowd’s office issued a statement to…
Short List: Week of June 10 – 17
The LGBT festival Pride hits full stride this week with a host of ticketed and free events. Thu., June 10, marks the Splash! pool party at the home of Steven Herforth and Peter Karlovich (7 p.m.; 207 Bailey Ave., Mount Washington; $65-80). On Fri., June 11, hit the chauffeured Pub Crawl (8 p.m.–2 a.m.; various…
Mother and Child
Adoption — and its impact on both mother and child — is the center around which three stories revolve in Rodrigo Garcia’s ensemble drama set in Los Angeles. Karen (Annette Bening) is a brittle 50-year-old, still haunted by the baby she gave up as a teen-ager; she lives with her failing mother and the unresolved…
The Karate Kid
This update-remake of the popular 1984 teen-inspirational, now relocated to China, felt like it lasted longer than the Cultural Revolution — and featured as much heavy-handedness in indoctrinating today’s young viewers to the greeting-card bromides of martial arts and the mechanics of cookie-cutter genre films.
Not to mention highlighting the Supreme Wonderfulness of the People’s…
The Human Centipede
The trailer for Tom Six’s provocative horror flick about a gruesome medical experiment is already a viral hit. The admittedly freaky concept is an instant conversation-starter (or -stopper): A mad German surgeon sews three people together mouth to anus, forming a six-legged “human centipede” sharing one intestinal system. (You do the math.) Why make such…
Here and There
It’s a gentle cultural switcheroo in writer-director Darko Lungulov’s low-key dramedy. A broke, jaded middle-aged New Yorker named Robert (David Thornton) makes a deal with Branko (Branislav Trifunovic), a young Serbian immigrant. Robert will go to Belgrade, marry Branko’s girlfriend and bring her back to New York City, for a cash payout. But things don’t…
Harry Brown
The temptation surely must have been to title this gritty British film about a solid citizen-turned-vigilante “Death Wish U.K.” Certainly, there are similarities between Daniel Barber’s film and the 1974 Charles Bronson neo-classic. Harry Brown (Michael Caine) lives on a south London council estate dominated by violent youth gangs. When his buddy is beaten to…
The Secret in Their Eyes
Benjamin Esposito (Ricardo Darin) is a retired criminal investigator, now trying to write a novel about a 25-year-old case that he can’t get out of his mind. His research takes him back to his office, where he seeks help from his former boss and long-time friend, Irene, (Soledad Villamil). This is all pretty routine stuff,…
Table Lakeside Brick Oven and Bar
Down among the former farms, this restaurant offers satisfying fare.
Up the Down Staircase
Director Rebecca J. Stevens has done a good job of getting believable performances.
Radio Golf
Kuntu Theatre has staged a powerful production of Radio Golf.
Art
The beauty of Art is its cutting wit — nearly every line smacks of insult and belittlement, even the gilded pleasantries.
Celebrity Autobiography
The evening becomes less about making fun of losers and instead chronicles the he-said-she-said bitterness behind lots of break-ups (famous and not).
This Just In: June 10 – 17
Highlights from the local TV news: Groundhog Day
Green-Talkers
It can all feel a sickly green, at best.
Poet Ben Lerner explores the vagaries of communication in Mean Free Path.
Mean Free Path sadly and beautifully reflects a fractured, soundbitten world where channel-surfing is the only permissible mode of transportation.
The Hot Button
A look at this week’s most intriguing issues — and why you should care
Sins of the Father
Son of anti-gay pastor shares different message at Pride
No Reservations
Chef Anthony Bourdain lets loose on his celebrity, globalization and food
Kurt Angle’s Foodies Cafe
Local wrestling star wants you to eat better
Weekly hip-hop podcast The J. Pitts Show looks back on the ’00s
“We get together and listen to music and make jokes on a Saturday night before we go out. We just happen to record it.”
Les Shelleys unearth a long-ago collaboration between singer-songwriters
“There’s something very specific about the timbre of a man and a woman’s voice, and when they blend together.”
The Poison Control Center look to ’90s indie rock and quit their jobs
“This is something that is from our late teens, early twenties, the kind of music we play.”
Beach House returns to Pittsburgh, promoting Sub Pop release Teen Dream
“The idea was just to extend the visual library or extend the visual iconography associated with what we do. It’s kind of an exercise of mind-expansion in a certain way.”
Fuels Rush In
The gas industry offers money to burn
Savage Love
My husband was 28 when I met him and a virgin. When we started having sex, he opened up about being “different.” He wanted to wear panties, he wanted me to have sex with other men, he wanted me to make fun of his tiny penis. Didn’t love the stuff, but whatever. Now it’s a…
Organic bamboo and other eco-friendlier ingredients fuel local fashion line Jonano.
They’re like apparel Rorschach tests.
