President Trump’s budget proposal would make Sen. Toomey’s sanctuary-city bill ineffective
Trump’s proposal to cut the federal funds that Toomey is hoping to withhold would undermine his bill to end sanctuary cities
Confusion grows over funding sources of meal-delivery programs
Some Meals on Wheels programs and other community organizations could see funding gaps due to Trump’s proposed budget cuts.
PETA marks World Water Day with demonstration in Downtown Pittsburgh
A demonstration by PETA in Pittsburgh today showed the cost of animal food products.
A new incubator in Pittsburgh, FUTUREMAKERS Labs, debuts at Kelly-Strayhorn Theater
There’s a new incubator in Pittsburgh for artists and entrepreneurs seeking to network and expand their resources.
Bike-advocacy group survey says cyclists support driverless-car testing in Pittsburgh
Data from Bike Pittsburgh’s survey shows cyclists and pedestrians feel safer with driverless cars on the road.
New Releases
We Hold Hands and We Jump We Hold Hands and We Jump Endless Bummer www.whhawj.bandcamp.com We Hold Hands and We Jump is an “anonymous” songwriter in Pittsburgh whose music teeters from traditional acoustic singer/songwriter to bedroom pop to early-2000s emo. His latest self-titled effort shows his range regarding concepts of love and pained self-examination. At…
Critics’ Picks, March 23-29
[INDIE FOLK] + SAT., MARCH 25 Twangy charm and accessibly poetic lyrics first draw you into the music of Aaron Lee Tasjan, performing tonight at Club Café. His latest release is 2016’s Silver Tears, a collection of smart, soulful cowboy ditties like the endearing ballad “Memphis Rain” and “Hard Life,” which sounds like a country-fried…
Ta-Nehisi Coates in Pittsburgh
Author speaks about writing at the Pitt Contemporary Writers Series
Music To Sweep To 12: Waterparks and Dirty Beaches
In this week’s Music To Sweep To, we’re listening to terrifying music and checking out the largest indoor waterpark in the world.
‘Yinzers Against Jagoffs’ PAC forms demanding more accessibility from U.S. Rep. Keith Rothfus
The Republican Congressman from Sewickley has never held a town hall during his six-year term.
MP3 Monday: Amir Miles
Each week, we post a song from a local artist, for free online. This week’s MP3 Monday comes from rising alt-R&B singer/songwriter Amir Miles. The single is “Bad Habits,” off his upcoming EP, Vintage, due out this summer. Stream or download the track below. To download “Bad Habits,” right-click here and select “save as.”
Lynn Cullen Live 03/20/17
Video Archive You can listen to the audio archive here. Comey’s hearing. The science of the squeaks on the basketball court. RIP Chuck Berry. Steven Bannon and his ilk. Legislation on leaf blowers. Audio Only Archive Listen to the Audio Archives on with our new Apple and Android Apps or the computer audio player.
Cataloguing Foods Facing Extinction
Slow Food USA is dedicated to documenting and preserving foodways that are good, clean and fair for all. The Ark of Taste is a catalogue that helps to record the histories of foods from around the world that are dying out and promote their continued growth. By bringing attention to these foods, the organization hopes…
Lynn Cullen Live 03/17/17
Video Archive You can listen to the audio archive here. Budget cuts for programs like the National Endowment for the Arts, Meals on Wheels and low income aid for heating bills. Audio Only Archive Listen to the Audio Archives on with our new Apple and Android Apps or the computer audio player.
U.S. Rep. Mike Doyle defends the Affordable Care Act in two Congressional committees
U.S. Rep. Mike Doyle, from Pittsburgh, will hold a town hall on March 18 to hear constituents’ heath-care opinions.
Lynn Cullen Live 03/16/17
Video Archive You can listen to the audio archive here. More corruption and how it will affect government supported programs. The Great Barrier reef is dying. Jeff Sessions and Trump hamming it up. Audio Only Archive Listen to the Audio Archives on with our new Apple and Android Apps or the computer audio player.
No Saint Patrick
You said the repeal of the Affordable Care Act won’t “pull the rug out from under anyone.” Are you sure you understand what that phrase means? First off, just by making that claim you acknowledge that a lot of Americans do indeed have the “rug” of health insurance currently under their feet. Maybe it’s not…
New program will take on xenophobia by partnering Pittsburgh natives with foreign-born residents
The lives of refugees and immigrants in Pittsburgh are little understood by most Pittsburgh natives, probably due in part to the small number of foreign-born residents living in the region. According to 2015 U.S. Census figures, of the country’s 50 largest metro areas, the Pittsburgh region has the smallest proportion of foreign-born residents, at 3.6…
Mike Wysocki ranks the 10 best Pittsburgh Pirates pitchers of the past 50 years
In less than a month, we’ll be able to spend a brisk spring evening watching the Pirates at PNC Park. As your eyes roam around the stadium, as they’re wont to do during the one or two boring moments of a baseball game, you always notice the retired jerseys of past players. Pirates like Honus…
Columbus, Ohio-based podcast Street Fight Radio brings its leftist comedy — and the Chapo Trap House podcast — to Spirit
STREET FIGHT RADIO and CHAPO TRAP HOUSE LIVE 4 p.m. Sun., March 19. Spirit, 242 51st St., Lawrenceville. Free. 412-586-4441 or spiritpgh.com After six years of broadcasting, Columbus, Ohio-based podcast Street Fight Radio recently enjoyed a considerable bump in popularity. In the past six months, its audience has grown from about 1,100 to around 5,000…
Dreamgirls at Pittsburgh Musical Theater
DREAMGIRLS continues through Sun., March 19. Pittsburgh Musical Theater at the Byham Theater, 101 Sixth St., Downtown. $9-54. 412-456-6666 or pittsburghmusicals.com Those involved with the 1981 Broadway musical Dreamgirls claimed they were shocked, shocked! that people thought it was about Berry Gordy and Diana Ross and The Supremes. Composer Henry Krieger, lyricist and book-writer Tom…
Bado’s Pizza Grill and Ale House, in Mount Lebanon, stays the course
Bado’s Pizza Grill and Ale House 307 Beverly Road, Mount Lebanon. 412-563-5300 Hours: Mon.-Thu. 10 a.m.-9:30 p.m.; Fri. 11 a.m.-11:30 p.m.; Sat. 9 a.m.-11:30 p.m.; Sun. 9 a.m.-9:30 p.m. Prices: Appetizers, soups, salads $4-12; sandwiches and burgers $7-13; pizza and calzones $8-30; pasta $11-16 Liquor: Full bar One night we motored out to Mount Lebanon…
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? at Cup-A-Jo Productions
WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? continues through March 25. Cup-A-Jo Productions in Point Breeze (address provided with ticket purchase). $20-25. 412-334-3126 or cupajo.woolf@gmail.com Putting actors on stage usually results in them acting like they are on a stage — their vocalizations and movements scaled to their distance from the audience. What happens if the audience…
Real Irish Soda Bread
More than 30 million Americans claim Irish ancestry. Yet we celebrate that heritage by swilling green beer and eating corned beef and cabbage. Green beer is actually loathed by the Irish, while corned beef and cabbage is merely America’s attempt at Irish cuisine. I first experienced authentic Irish food at a pub in Dublin. After…
Listen, Liberal author Thomas Frank on Trump’s cabinet and more
THOMAS FRANK 7 p.m. Mon., March 20. Hopwood Hall, 6001 University Blvd., Robert Morris University campus, Moon Township. Free. sess.rmu.edu In March 2016, Thomas Frank published a book about U.S. politics in which the lone mention of the man who eight months later would be elected president was “Donald Trump seems outrageous.” Yet post-election, Frank’s…
Savage Love
I went to Dark Odyssey Winter Fire, the big kink hotel-takeover event in Washington, D.C., in February. There was one thing I saw there that is messing with my head, and I hope you can set me straight. There was this lovely little six-person orgy going on with two cute-as-could-be hippie girls and four older…
At SPACE, Doubt makes you look twice — and then look again
DOUBT continues through March 26. SPACE, 812 Liberty Ave., Downtown. 412-325-7723 or spacepittsburgh.org Doubt, at SPACE gallery, initially seems designed to unsettle. No captions mark the 15 pieces of artwork. Nothing fits together in form or topical reference, other than the abstract theme “doubt.” An awkward, giant work in blue paper sprawls from the ceiling…
Pittsburgh Pizza Week
On the surface, pizza looks like a pretty easy thing to make. All you need is a crust, some sauce, cheese and a few cured meats, right? But anyone who’s ever had bad pizza knows just how wrong that statement is. It takes time to master the art of pizza-making, and that art deserves a…
Texture Contemporary Ballet closes its season with a program of new works
TEXTURE CONTEMPORARY BALLET PRESENTS VELOCITY 8 p.m. Fri., March 17; 8 p.m. Sat., March 18; and 2 p.m. Sun., March 19 ($20-30); children’s performance: 4 p.m. Sat., March 18 ($10 per family). New Hazlett Theater, 6 Allegheny Square East, North Side. 888-718-4253 or textureballet.org Texture Contemporary Ballet closes its home season with Velocity, a program of…
New Releases
Skeletonized Skeletonized www.skeletonized.bandcamp.com The latest album from experimental noise trio Skeletonized is a record intended for an old-school listen. It’s an experience that harkens to the days before the shuffle option on your iPod or even the “track skip” on a CD player. Skeletonized’s self-titled cassette lacks separated tracks or song names, and only about…
Pittsburgh’s Montell Fish is spreading the gospel through hip hop and R&B
At 17, Montell Fish was having a rough time. He was smoking weed constantly, getting in trouble and regularly fighting with his family about his behavior. One night in 2014, he came home stoned and was caught by his stepdad. His stepdad took Fish to a Wednesday-night prayer service; it was a pivotal moment in…
Regarding the fantastical fashions of Iris van Herpen
IRIS VAN HERPEN: TRANSFORMING FASHION continues through May 1. Carnegie Museum of Art, 4400 Forbes Ave., Oakland. 412-622-3131 or cmoa.org Iris van Herpen: Transforming Fashion, at the Carnegie Museum of Art’s Heinz Galleries through May 1, is a study in contradictions. Fantastical in imagining and mathematical in execution, this is an assemblage of dresses, three…
Creatives for Climate seeks new ways to discuss the climate crisis
For at least a generation, there’s been a scientific consensus on climate change: Human activity is warming the planet, with potentially disastrous consequences. So why has public opinion lagged? Why does climate still rank so low on most people’s priority lists? Among those seeking solutions is Creatives for Climate, a new group organized by documentary…
Kong: Skull Island
Kong: Skull Island Directed by Jordan Vogt-Roberts Starring Tom Hiddleston, Brie Larson, Samuel L. Jackson, John C. Reilly In 3-D, in select theaters Kong: Skull Island is an OK monster movie. Its special effects and various giant-beastie battles should hold the drive-in crowd. But fans of 1979’s Vietnam drama Apocalypse Now (and the 1899 Joseph…
Columbus, Ohio’s Condado Taqueria opens in Downtown Pittsburgh
To say there’s a lot going on at Condado Taqueria would be an understatement. The new Mexican restaurant opening Downtown this week offers tacos, salsa, queso, guacamole and cocktails, with options spread across at least five menus. Condado is based in Columbus, Ohio; its new outpost takes over the spot at 10th and Liberty recently…
Beauty and the Beast
The Disney Factory never rests, and its latest product is making big, flashy live-action versions of its beloved animated films, themselves adapted from classic tales. We’ve had Cinderella and The Jungle Book, and now Beauty and the Beast gets the razzle-dazzle A-list do-over. In this version, free-thinking Belle (Emma Watson) rejects her boorish suitor (Luke…
Critics’ Picks, March 15-22
[MEGA MAN] + WED., MARCH 15 They say you should never meet your heroes, but they say nothing about seeing your favorite childhood video games played on stage while a full band live-scores the speed run. If that’s not heroic, there are no heroes. Tonight, at Spirit, you’ll get a chance to see a seasoned…
Smallman Galley charity drinks program embraces Women’s History Month
March is National Women’s History Month. Last week, on International Women’s Day, women across the country participated in A Day Without Women protests to demonstrate how vital women are to our society and our economic growth. Bros at the bar reading this probably be like, “Ugh, but what about men? Where’s our special day?” Well,…
Spoiler Alert: Pittsburgh sports fans love Mike Lange
A couple of weeks ago, in honor of the impending March Madness, I decided to do a bracket with my rankings of Pittsburgh’s sports broadcasters, and then pit them head-to-head until I came up with a winner. I thought it would be fun, and maybe people would have some good-natured arguments over a list that…
ASCEND brings new climbing and yoga options to Pittsburgh
Like many climbers, Alex Bernstein vividly remembers when he first fell in love with the sport. Ten years ago, during a trip to San Francisco, he visited the Mission Cliffs climbing gym and quickly realized he wanted to bring a similar experience to Pittsburgh. This month, that dream will become a reality when ASCEND, a…
Pittsburgh’s Same uses patience and experimentation to create its own take on alternative indie rock
SAME with YRS, HEARKEN, SWAMPWALK 7 p.m. Thu., March 23. James Street Gastropub, 422 Foreland St., North Side. $7. 412-904-3335 or jamesstreetgastropub.com Same is making music that doesn’t quite sound like anything else. Weird as Hell, its debut EP, is carefully crafted and detail oriented. It sounds like every song was a seed planted in…
Philadelphia surf-rockers Queen of Jeans riding high
Queen of Jeans with The Lopez, AllegrA, late. 9 p.m. Sat., March 18. Gooski’s, 3117 Brereton St., Polish Hill. $5. 412-681-1658 Philadelphia’s rock scene seems to be a hotbed of musical talent, and the fuzzy surf band Queen of Jeans is no exception. With washed-out riffs and reverb-soaked vocals, Queen of Jeans channels a classic…
Short List: March 16-22
SPOTLIGHT: Fri., March 17 — Comics It’s a long way from Bazooka Joe Gum comics to Dante’s Inferno, or so you’d think. But Robert Sikoryak collapsed that distance — as well as the gulf between “Garfield” and Faustus, “Ziggy” and Candide, and Beavis and Butthead and Waiting for Godot — in his book Masterpiece Comics.…
Lynn Cullen Live 03/15/17
Video Archive You can listen to the audio archive here. Maddow and Trump’s tax returns. RIP Mother Divine. Eric Trump says the Trump brand is doing better than ever. Audio Only Archive Listen to the Audio Archives on with our new Apple and Android Apps or the computer audio player.
