Bush League
“Coup in Haiti.” What a long, slow coup it’s been — “a chronic coup,” writes Amy Wilentz in The Nation (March 22). And in the 14 years between Aristide’s election and his removal to the Central African Republic, the U.S. has been active in the opposition movement, from Clinton’s failure to disarm it to USAID’s…
Correction:
In News Briefs (“‘The Beat’ Nix,” March 3), Ellis Cannon was erroneously labeled. He is a local sports talk show host. City Paper regrets the error.
Why do some buses make you pay when you enter, and others make you pay when you exit? It seems that pay-as-you-exit leaves the bus driver vulnerable to theft of service if someone jumps off the bus without paying. What do you think?
It turns out that the Port Authority has a name for this system of paying your fare: It’s called “pay in your country,” a phrase which only enhances the Orient-Express mystique that, to me at least, is part of any mass-transit experience. Just think of your fare as a passport, a ticket that allows you…
Monarch
The lads of Pittsburgh foursome Monarch have been quite busy over the past year, playing countless shows and winning both the adoration of audiences and the respect of fellow musicians with their soaring, piano-and-synth-drenched indie rock. They signed with Orange County indie outpost Northern Records, and are showcasing next week at Austin’s celebrated South by…
The Traditionals
They say it in their songs, in their own words — The Traditionals are the side of punk rock that nobody really wants to see. Cropped hair and cropped drum beats, bulldog-barked backing vocals and thick, loud guitars — the street-level, violent, primitive growl of Oi has long been the punk genre that everybody loves…
Pittsburgh Jewish Israeli Film Festival
The 11th annual Pittsburgh Jewish Israeli Film Festival continues, with films screening Thursdays through Mondays until March 21 at area theaters. Tickets are $10 for adults, $7 for seniors and $5 for students. Six-film passes for $40 are also available. For tickets and more information, see www.pjiff.net or call 412-992-5203. YOSSI AND JAGGER: LOVE IS…
Yossi and Jagger
In the American military, they beat you to death if you’re gay and rape you if you’re a woman. But Israeli military life is far more integrated and safe: Men and women — openly gay and straight — serve together, party together and, of course, make love together, sometimes in a tent, with the other…
On the Run
In a film scene as brown with sequels as a month-old banana, why make another trilogy? Yet not only has Lucas Belvaux made one, he actually seems to have had a good reason to. The young Frenchman’s three interlocking new films are smart entertainment with something to say not only about people but also about…
The Statement
During World War II, the Vichy government of Nazi-occupied France executed roughly 77,000 Jews. These executioners were, of course, just following orders — except for those eager gendarmes who jumped the gun and immediately launched their pogroms. Some of these people met justice after the war, and some slipped back into French society, occasionally attaining…
The Righty and the Switch Hitter
What’s a Republican? Ten-month-old Vanessa clearly has no clue. And yet she’s about to play a bit part in a political battle that may help settle that question — at least in Pennsylvania, and possibly in the U.S. Senate. Vanessa and her 18-year-old mother, Mary, occupy one of a row of chairs arrayed along a…
Academy Award Nominated Shorts
Crafty but conventional: A desperate underling struggles to get the better of his boss on the squash court in Lionel Bailliu’s Squash (France, 27 min). Touching but manipulative: Florian Baxmeyer’s The Red Jacket (Germany, 18 min.) is a mostly dialogueless narrative about fate, desire and the connections between Europe’s haves and have-nots. Cute if slight:…
Castor Oil
It’s sad to see how far conservatives — those defenders of traditional morality and law-and-order — have strayed from the values which made our country great. In the old days you could count on our nation’s moral absolutists to conduct a stoning when the circumstances demanded. They might even hand out a scarlet letter or…
Nascar: The IMAX Experience
NASCAR fans will learn nothing new in what amounts to a 40-minute infomercial, but nobody ever went broke endlessly re-packaging the sport to the faithful. And familiarity can only help with a film that jumps willy-nilly from track to track, is often remiss in identifying voices and interviewees, and always employs the front-office high-gloss spin.…
Saturday Morning Fever
It’s 9:15 Saturday morning and a fifth-grader — Shawn, let’s call him — is trying to get into his school, Fort Pitt Elementary, a city public school in Garfield. His usual entrance is locked. Shawn circles the building, dutifully trying doors. Finally, the custodian’s entrance swings open and Shawn is greeted by the roar of…
Tokyo Godfathers
While Satoshi Kon’s new anime film may bear some resemblance to the 1948 three-cowboys-and-a-baby Western, The Three Godfathers, John Ford’s film sure didn’t feature a touching scene in a bar full of old drag queens. On a snowy Christmas in Tokyo, a homeless trio — a middle-aged alcoholic man, an aging weepy transvestite and a…
A Conversation with Jean Martin
Why rats? I had made a friend a fake fur cape and I saved some of the scraps. When I first joined the Society [for Creative Anachronism] they played a version of hot potato where they threw a stuffed rat around. So I made my first plague rat with the idea of getting people to…
PlayHouse
As if a shortage of theatrical venues in Pittsburgh weren’t already a problem, now it seems that one of the city’s venerable stages has become possessed and is turning actors and stage crews into crazed zombies. At least that’s how it’s going down in PlayHouse, writer-director Hunter F. Roberts’ full-length horror-movie spoof. Roberts presumably knows…
Political footballer
English radical ranting poet Attila the Stockbroker (a.k.a. John Baine) made his debut onstage in 1980, in the punk era. Within months, he was reading poems like “Russians In McDonalds” on the influential John Peel radio show, opening for The Jam, and doing benefits for the Socialist Workers Party. Nearly a quarter-century, four books and…
Get on the Boat
Rev. Thomas Smith, of Monumental Baptist Church in the Hill District, says the Pilgrimage to Haiti program he is helping to organize is still going on as planned, despite the recent ouster of Haiti’s leader and the continuing turmoil — just in time for the country’s bicentennial. The national Haiti Support Project set their…
Down and Out in Palestine
“You … enter through a decaying concrete gate, the Palestinian flag painted on and chipping, a sign that might have looked vaguely cheerful years ago, saying ‘Welcome to Palestine,'” reported Lora Gordon. “You walk through and there is a feeling of finality, no turning back. Welcome to Gaza. Welcome to hell.” Lora Gordon, of…
