Coming up this week: July 6 – July 12
In April, Pittsburgh police responded to 10 heroin overdoes over one 24-hour period. This week Pittsburgh City Council will host a special meeting on the large number of heroin overdoses that have occurred in recent months. The meeting, set for July 9 at 1 p.m. in council chambers was requested by District Councilor Natalia Rudiak.…
Listen Up! July 1
Every Wednesday, we make a Spotify playlist containing tracks from artists covered in the current music section. Take a listen below!
MP3 Monday: Nick Barilla
This week’s MP3 Monday comes courtesy of local songwriter Nick Barilla. “Signs” is a cut from Barilla’s 2014 EP, Take a Chance. If you like what you hear, download below, and check out his Bandcamp page for the whole thing. This download link has expired. Sorry!
Lynn Cullen Live 6/29/15
Video Archive You can listen to the audio archive here. A reprisal of the last week in the U.S. Donald Trump hits 2nd in the Republican polls. What’s next in politics. Audio Only Archive Listen to the Audio Archives on with our new Apple and Android Apps or the computer audio player.
SCOTUS ruling legalizes same-sex marriage nationwide
Today the United States Supreme Court ruled in favor of same-sex marriage.
A conversation with Tom Gimbel of Foreigner
“There’s nothing esoteric, he’s not talking about the planets — well, he is on ‘Starrider.’”
Lynn Cullen Live 6/26/15
Video Archive You can listen to the audio archive here. Marriage for all! The Supreme Court passes marriage between people of all genders nationwide! Audio Only Archive Listen to the Audio Archives on with our new Apple and Android Apps or the computer audio player.
Council to consider solutions to vacant properties and blight
City council discusses possible solutions to blight.
Lynn Cullen Live 6/25/15
Video Archive You can listen to the audio archive here. Damon Young, co-founder and editor of the online magazine, VSB is on the show talking about race, the importance of symbolism and the changes we are seeing in the world at large. Audio Only Archive Listen to the Audio Archives on with our new Apple…
Hip-hop duo The Come Up tides fans over with a new nine-song project
It’s been nearly a year since the last EP and almost two years since the last full project, but hip-hop duo The Come Up — Braddock natives Franchise and Vinny Radio — is focused on the future, and wants to give you something while you wait. The two are signed to Remember Music, owned by…
Lucky Guy at Little Lake Theater
LUCKY GUY continues through July 3. | Little Lake Theater Company, 500 Lakeside Drive, Canonsburg. $12-20. 724-745-6300 or www.littlelake.org Following her death the year before, 2013 saw the Broadway debut of Nora Ephron’s only play, Lucky Guy, which starred Tom Hanks making his Broadway debut. Little Lake Theater presents the Pittsburgh premiere, giving local audiences…
On its latest EP, Chrome Moses embraces a new era and an analog sound
CHROME MOSES EP- RELEASE SHOW with THE RED WESTERN, PROPER PEOPLE 9 p.m. Sat., June 27 Thunderbird Café 4023 Butler St. Lawrenceville $8 412-682-0177 or thunderbird.net If there’s one thing to be learned from Tamaraine, the new EP from local three-piece Chrome Moses, it’s this: These guys know how to kick out the jams. The…
A review of Autumn House’s Anthology of Contemporary American Poetry
Poetry anthologies, used in college classrooms for years, are like academic mixtapes, showcasing a publisher’s favorites to readers in thick volumes. That’s no knock, as they’re useful for changing attitudes toward poetry by highlighting dynamic voices using different forms. The third edition of The Autumn House Anthology of Contemporary American Poetry, at 397 pages, skillfully…
Critics’ Picks, June 25-July 1
[ELECTRONIC] + FRI., JUNE 26 Although Tanlines is cited as a Brooklyn-based project in damn-near everything written about it, the band’s frontman, Eric Emm, has serious roots in Pittsburgh’s math-rock history. In the past few years, Emm, like Battles’ Ian Williams, has found continued success after an earlier stint with Don Caballero. With Tanlines, Emm…
Art project highlights African-American-owned businesses
How many businesses do you know of in your neighborhood that are African-American owned? How many do you frequent? This is the question asked by One Large, a project blending art, economics and social awareness. Working with a $1,000 Sprout Fund grant, project organizers Joy Katz and Cindy Croot gathered 100 participants at April’s Open…
On the Record with Ryan Naideau of Nude Beach
NUDE BEACH with OUTER SPACES, SECRET TOMBS 7 p.m. Wed., July 1. Certain Death. $6. Email vegthesystem@gmail.com for address. Last year, Brooklyn ensemble Nude Beach released its sprawling third album, 77, which literally doubled down on the band’s catchy-as-hell journey through rock history. CP talked to drummer Ryan Naideau about the band’s current state. How…
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl Directed by: Alfonso Gomez-Rejon Starring: Thomas Mann, RJ Cyler and Olivia Cooke Starts Fri., June 26. “I don’t know how to tell this story,” says the voice opening Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, before preceding to do just that quite ably. The quirky coming-of-age, coming-to-terms-with-death…
The Allegheny County Public Defender’s office is in better shape than it was three years ago but ‘a lot remains to be done’
When Elliot Howsie took control of the Allegheny County Public Defender’s office more than three years ago, it was a department that had long been mired in turmoil and controversy. The office had been involved in a 1996 class-action lawsuit from the American Civil Liberties Union alleging that the office failed to provide constitutionally adequate…
Iris
Age doesn’t stop creative people, as proved in Iris, 87-year-old Albert Maysles’ documentary profile of New Yorker Iris Apfel, a flamboyant 93-year-old fashion icon. Apfel is a tiny, birdlike woman known for her huge black-rimmed eyeglasses, colorful mix-and-match outfits and gigantic pieces of costume jewelry. Not much happens in Iris: Maysles and his camera trail…
Perry High School librarian heads to the Internet to get her students the books they want to read
Sheila May-Stein’s students at Pittsburgh Perry High School want stories on the shelves of their school library that deal with topics that affect their lives — drive-by-shootings, gangs, teen pregnancy and prison. And May-Stein, the school librarian, is pushing hard to get her students those books. She just wants to see them reading, period. “We…
Felix and Meira
This sensitive and quietly searing drama from Maxime Giroux depicts a relationship that slowly builds between two unhappy, dissatisfied souls in Montreal — Meira (Hadas Yaron), a young Hasidic mother, and Felix (Martin Dubreuil), a secular man she meets at a bakery. Caught in the middle is Meira’s husband (Luzer Twersky), who sees, but cannot…
Henry Redd Uppington’s career as a Pittsburgh superhero was over before it started
“Do you know who Henry Redd Uppington is?” I beseech, as I cautiously loiter in front of First Lutheran Church on Grant Street near a garbage receptacle that bears his chiseled image. I query several passersby, but no one says “yes.” It’s as though he never existed. Yet, in the heart of Downtown Pittsburgh, where…
Talking about death about at the Pittsburgh premiere of Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
It’s the Pittsburgh premiere of the locally set, locally filmed Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, so let’s talk about death. Walking the shortest red carpet in (not) Hollywood history, the movie’s director, writer and young stars stopped to smile for cameras and chat with reporters last week at AMC Waterfront. They were all…
Savage Love
I am a male grad student who is technically engaged to a female grad student. She has numerous positive qualities, but she is repulsed by sex. She is very sensitive about her repulsion and becomes distraught when I broach the subject. She says that even the thought of doing anything sexual with me elicits a…
Where Hope Grows
In this light drama from Chris Dowling, a former professional baseball player named Calvin (Kristoffer Polaha) is just drifting in his life. He’s unemployed, drinking and neglecting his teenage daughter, who, of course, is dating a bad boy. But at the local supermarket, Calvin meets Produce (David DeSanctis), a young man with Down syndrome, who,…
Short List: June 24 – July 2
FREE EVENT: Fri., June 26 — Art With London/Pittsburgh, the Silver Eye Center for Photography pairs two bodies of work by internationally known photographer Mark Neville. In 2012, the New York Times commissioned the British artist to shoot a series on life in London; almost simultaneously, The Andy Warhol Museum hosted him here for a…
Stuff We Like
Thin Man Sandwich Shop’s Goat Pita Sandwich. The goat kheema matar is spiced to perfection. Grab it while you can — it’s a seasonal offering. Pair it with a refreshing strawberry-rhubarb seltzer. 50 21st St., Strip District Cadillac Desert. As California’s drought hits panicky new lows, pick up Marc Reisner’s magisterial 1986 history of the (mis)management and…
Smoq Pitt
Smoq Pitt 600 Brookline Blvd., Brookline. 412-668-3459 Hours: Tue.-Thu. 11 a.m.-8 p.m.; Fri.-Sat. noon-9 p.m.; Sun. noon-7 p.m. Prices: $8-20 Liquor: BYOB In a city once notorious for its smoke, it is perhaps a touch ironic that our barbecue culture lacks precisely that. Barbecue isn’t really indigenous to Pittsburgh, so maybe that’s why many supposed…
Why some of us like bitter better
On a recent vacation, I made a detour (as I always do when I escape Pennsylvania) to a liquor store. I left with a six-pack of a local double IPA and a bottle of Gran Classico, an Italian aperitif on the order of Campari. My purchases set me to wondering: Why do I seek out…
Doce Taqueria opens up on the South Side
DOCE TAQUERIA 1220 E. Carson St., South Side. 412-238-8518 Tacos are busting out all over town — finally! — and last month, Doce Taqueria threw its sombrero into the ring. The East Carson Street taco spot occupies a tiny storefront near 12th Street. The space has been attractively decorated with Mexican tchotchkes, and about a…
CP Weekend Podcast – June 26 – 28, 2015
This week on the CP Weekend Podcast: Make sure you head out early and grab a spot on the lawn for WYEP’s Summer Festival. Who let the dogs out? We’ll you’re actually going to want to this for the Lucky’s Dog Festival down on East Carson Street on Sunday morning. Weather Permitting returns this Sunday…
A review of Rhythm, Repetition & Pattern at SPACE
RR&P: REPETITION, RHYTHM, AND PATTERN continues through Sun., June 28. SPACE, 812 Liberty Ave., Downtown. 412-325-7723 or www.spacepittsburgh.org Some artists are like creative athletes who approach visual problems like laboratory scientists. Examination, experimentation and the imperative execution — all of which likely require a high physical and mental pain threshold. Reject, reformulate. Repeat. RR&P: Repetition,…
Martin Sexton hits the road with new Mixtape
WYEP SUMMER MUSIC FESTIVAL featuring MARTIN SEXTON, THE LONE BELLOW, KOPECKY, BRIGHTSIDE. 6 p.m. Sat., June 27. Schenley Plaza Forbes Avenue at Schenley Drive Oakland Free All ages 412-381-9131 or www.wyep.org The idea of the mixtape is different in rock music than in hip hop, where the term is more common lately. The hip-hop mixtape…
Hunt Institute show focuses on birds’ nests
ELEMENTS continues through Tue., June 30. Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation, Hunt Library, Carnegie Mellon University. 412-268-2434 or www.huntbotanical.org Each spring, the natural world of Pittsburgh transforms itself from a barren, frigid wasteland into a lush, verdant … maybe not quite paradise, but something still pretty spectacular. The landscape’s beauty is pleasing not only for…
Lynn Cullen Live 6/23/15
Video Archive You can listen to the audio archive here. The debate on the Confederate flag. Apple defers to Queen Taylor Swift. Audio Only Archive Listen to the Audio Archives on with our new Apple and Android Apps or the computer audio player.
Lynn Cullen Live 6/24/15
Video Archive You can listen to the audio archive here. UPMC no longer sells the PG at their premises. Women and “I’m sorry” RIP creator of the pink flamingo. Audio Only Archive Listen to the Audio Archives on with our new Apple and Android Apps or the computer audio player.
