Local rockers Triggers release CD at the 31st Street Pub
Following-up the 2007 debut EP, Elude the Suits (see review) local indie-pop powerhouse Triggers is releasing a slick full-length, called Smoke Show. The band spent the better part of last year making the album, chronicling their progress along the way in a three-part series of short YouTube videos, “Triggers Make a Record.” Through the surprisingly…
When the lights go down
Their name might feel a little funny rolling off the tongue, but San Francisco’s Citay is a band that’s getting some attention in spite of it. They’re a pretty big ensemble and feature one of The Fucking Champs, but exhibit a more chill vibe and more complicated orchestration (that’s what happens when you have three…
MSMbarrassing
It seems crazy now, but as recently as a few months ago, local bloggers I knew would sometimes mutter darkly about the all-powerful MSM — those consent-manufacturing media gatekeepers who, the bloggers worried, were hell-bent on suppressing the voice of the digitized masses. Hasn’t quite worked out that way, has it? This morning, for example,…
The Doors Live in Pittsburgh 1970
“Ah, ladies and gentlemen, I don’t know if you realize it, but tonight you’re in for a special treat,” says Jim Morrison. He’s greeted with loud applause from the crowd gathered in Pittsburgh’s Civic Arena on May 2, 1970. “No, not that — you only get that treat on full moons. Besides that, I know…
Poker After Dark
When I was a kid my dad used to watch pro bowling on ABC every Saturday or Sunday afternoon. I remember as a kid thinking nothing could be more of a waste of my time than watching some guy named Earl Anthony do on TV what my dad and his buddies used to do every…
Vote of Confidence?
Are Pennsylvania’s voting machines — in the spotlight during the primary season for the first time in recent memory — ready for their close-up? In recent years, advocates for election integrity have expressed wariness about “touch-screen” voting machines in Allegheny and other counties, which provide no paper trail for the ballots cast upon them. And…
The Race Race
Democratic strategist James Carville once famously described Pennsylvania as Philadelphia on one side, Pittsburgh on the other and Alabama in between. And the notion that a bunch of conservative white folks are sandwiched between two more liberal areas is a generally accepted Keystone State cliché. It’s not completely conjecture: 18 of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties are…
How Key Is the Keystone State?
Listening to David Plouffe earlier this month talk about Pennsylvania’s role in the upcoming primary election, you got a “whatever happens, happens” type of vibe. “[Hillary Clinton] should be expected to win by some margin,” Obama’s campaign manager told reporters with an excitement level not usually seen outside of a concession speech. “They have quite…
Taking Our Best Shot
When the April 22 primary comes around, Pennsylvania will be in the unaccustomed position of actually having a say in who the Democratic presidential nominee will be. Confronted with this awesome civic responsibility, City Paper did what it always does in such situations: We went out drinking. With local activist Pat Clark as co-host, CP…
Drillbit Taylor
High school is miserable for three freshmen: fatty Ryan (Troy Gentile), beanpole Wade (Nate Hartley) and robot-voiced nerd Emmit (David Dorfman). After some intolerable bullying, the trio hires DrillbitTaylor (Owen Wilson), a homeless free-thinker who convinces them he is an Army Ranger with skills galore to impart. One would hope that this semi-raucous comedy, directed…
British Advertising Awards
An hour-long program of TV commercials you won’t want to fast-forward through! Not only are these from British TV (and therefore new to you), but they’re also award-winning buy-me spots. Many are laugh-out-loud funny, building to zinger punchlines. Others trade on Britons’ capacity for surreal, offbeat humor, such as a series of ads that forefront…
Bonneville
Three middle-aged women — recent widow (Jessica Lange), salty pal (Kathy Bates) and good Mormon wife (Joan Allen) — fire up a ’66 Bonneville convertible for a road trip from Idaho to California. If you guessed that this is also a trip into the women’s personal growth, and that along the way there will be…
Letters to the Editor: March 19 – 26
Feedback from our readers: Beware of for-profit schools … bodies being sold to Cleveland.
Politics: Shields wants Oklahoma legislator to resign over anti-gay remarks
“As the president of the city council of Pittsburgh,” Shields wrote, “I require an apology from you for your senseless, mean-spirited attack on one of my colleagues and the council as a whole.”
Neighborhoods: North Siders spar over homeless population
Some North Side residents say the area’s “homeless situation” is causing problems for others who live there.
LGBT: U.S. invasion has made life worse for Iraqi LGBT community
The U.S. invasion of Iraq was supposed to free Iraqis from tyranny. If you are a gay Iraqi, however, things have apparently gotten worse.
Protest: Cage Fight
The fifth anniversary of the Iraq War on Mar. 19 will spur a range of protests over the coming weeks, from marches to a proposal to cage military recruiters.
Snuffed Films: Incredibly Strange Video closing
Local niche video retailer done in by national competition
This Just In: March 19 – 26
Highlights from the local TV news: Clinton comes to town … North Park goosed (again) … possibly Satanic rituals conducted in (where else?) Fayette County
Urban Living, at Wood Street Galleries, pointedly de-emphasizes the human presence.
Horne’s exhibition is a thought-provoking exploration of technology’s still-incalculable potential, which is invariably edged with a sense of the apocalyptic.
Pittsburgh Chop House
A high-end suburban steakhouse to rival any of the white-tablecloth venues Downtown.
A Number
As speculative/science fiction goes, this determinative interpretation of cloning is just so much twaddle, of which playwright Churchill assures us she is well aware in a neat dénouement.
Local post-rockers In the Wake of Giants to play WPTS fest at Pitt
“People shouldn’t be looking to us for pop tunes.”
Reunited dub-punks The Slits play The Warhol Museum
“We were ahead of our time back then, so we never really finished what we started.”
U.K. vets New Model Army lay siege to 31st Street Pub
“Songs are not about philosophy; songs are about emotions, and emotions are contradictory.”
Progressive jazz locals Cap Gun Quartet + 4 and Thoth Trio release CDs this week
“Let’s take a bite out of this. Let’s just play.”
Le Doulos
Jean-Pierre Melville’s 1962 crime drama about a police informant among robbers begins tense, if somewhat confusingly. Events in the film’s first hour occur naturally, but it will be some time before Melville begins to lightly sketch in the links between them. But the exposition is all very precise and lean, and if we’re puzzled, we’re…
Horton Hears a Who
It’s always risky when filmmakers transform a childhood classic — especially one of so few words — into a full-length film. But Jimmy Hayward and Steve Martino’s computer-animated version of Horton sticks closely to the original story of the elephant and his speck, populated with invisible Whos. They stretch out the narrative mostly with related…
R.E.M. Tribute Night at Brillobox
It’s hosted by The Chad Sipes Stereo, who will be — ahem — “reconstructing” R.E.M.’s 1985 album Fables of the Reconstruction in its entirety.
The Modern Cafe
Neon sign and cold beer: All a neighborhood bar should be.
A big Cultural Trust development project is on hold, but the smart design principles it embodies highlight an intriguing Heinz Architectural Center exhibit.
Its crisply detailed sensibility of a village of glass contrasts tellingly with the corporate slapdash of a PPG Place.
Identity Crisis
There was something missing from Hillary Clinton’s appearance in Oakland on March 14. Denunciations of “oil men in the White House”? Check. Promises to make health care and college affordable for working families? Check. An appreciative audience that represents the Democratic Party’s diversity? Well, not so much. With the exception of a handful of strategically…
Local cartoonist Ed Piskor’s new graphic novel explores the world of the hacker.
“They don’t necessarily need other people to fill up their time. …. They’re kind of antisocial.”
Savage Love
My wife beat breast cancer five years ago. Went through chemo and radiation and ultimately radical surgery. Brave, lovely and lucky woman she is. But after the procedures, she said she was proud of her post-op look and the zigzag scar across her chest. No new boobs for her. Moi? I don’t like going to…
