Curator of Censored-Video Exhibit Rips Museum-World Homophobia
In December, the Smithsonian Institution caved to right-wing political pressure and withdrew artist David Wojnarowicz’s 1986-87 video “A Fire in My Belly” from an exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery. In response, regional museums in Pittsburgh and elsewhere hosted screenings of the video, which includes sequences depicting ants crawling over a crucified plastic Jesus. But…
MP3 Monday: Mace Ballard
Howdy! This week’s free MP3 download? It comes from pop-punkers Mace Ballard. They’re last year’s CP Reader’s Poll “Best Pop/Rock Band That’s Not The Clarks” winners, and also won the P***-Gaz****’s “Pittsburgh Rocks” contest. This is where I disclose that the singer is also the brother of CP staffer Lauren Daley. But that’s not why…
A conversation with William Fitzsimmons
William Fitzsimmons spent much of his early life living in the Ohio valley, and went to Quaker Valley High School. The 32-year-old got his master’s degree at Geneva College and began work as a counselor, but in 2006 decided to pursue music full-time. He plays Brillobox (4104 Penn Ave., Bloomfield) Tues., April 5 at 9:30;…
Diver Down: Trib editorial on Carnegie exhibit reaches new depths
I’ve often thought of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review’s editorial page as a form of performance art: Reading it is like watching a performance by Karen Finley … except when it’s time to simulate the smearing around of fecal matter, the creators use newspaper ink instead of chocolate. Even so, I never thought of the Trib’s editorial…
Short List: Week of March 31 – April 7
Last year’s inaugural Geek Art/Green Innovators festival piggybacked on Penn Avenue’s Unblurred, sparking the monthly gallery crawl’s biggest night ever. Nearly 4,000 visitors saw everything from a fashion show of clothing made from recycled materials to a solar cell/rainwater-collector shaped like a sunflower. The next day, enthused festival-goers came back … to find GA/GI over:…
Tornado Alley
Tornadoes seem tailor-made for IMAX’s large-format 70 mm cameras. Sean Casey’s Tornado Alley is a 43-minute, all-too-brief look at the U.S.’s “alley,” where 80 percent of the world’s tornadoes occur. The film focuses mainly on Casey, star of Discovery Channel’s Storm Chasers, as he attempts to get the dream shot — a tornado passing over…
Online only: A Conversation with Dan Savage
Syndicated sex columnist Dan Savage — whose column of course appears in City Paper every week — was in town last night, giving a talk at the University of Pittsburgh. Savage was on hand to talk about the It Gets Better Project, an online outreach effort directed at gay teens. Savage and his partner Terry…
Source Code
It’s been a pretty good season for pretty good B-movies (Limitless, Lincoln Lawyer, Adjustment Bureau) — and here comes another. Duncan Jones’ thriller marries solid performances with a ridiculous but compact plot, delivering 90 minutes of popcorn-munching entertainment. Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal) wakes up on a Chicago commuter train, in the body of another man…
Insidious
A family moves into a new house, but it seems to be possessed by a malevolent spirit or two. Then, the eldest son falls into a coma-like state. Moving to a different house doesn’t help — the ghost-like things follow them. The parents (Rose Byrne, Patrick Wilson) call in the specialists, a medium (Lin Shaye)…
Certified Copy
Many years ago, a teacher said something to me that I’ve always remembered: “I have many ideas, but very few beliefs.” In Certified Copy, the Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami plays with this and other notions, all worth cogitating, if you have a mind for that sort of enterprise and this sort of film. (Call it…
JFilm
Films from Israel and around the world representing Jewish experiences from the comic and dramatic to the inspirational
Osteria 2350
You won’t get better Italian cooking for your money than here
Critics’ Picks
Thu., March 31 — Folk Colorado’s Boulder Acoustic Society is a refreshing departure from the rap and R&B artists that populate the pop charts today. Its music, a hybrid of folk and indie rock, is peppered with accordion, ukulele, banjo, washboard, violin and mandolin. Although the band hails from the western U.S., its music is…
Five Questions with State Radio’s Chad Stokes
“Ultimately we’re here to kind of create the dialogue, not to necessarily tell people what they should think.”
Ashes to Ashes
Some things you just remember And I remember Tyler And years go by like turning a page Or like dropping a book on the hard wooden floor, When you’re just starting to fall asleep. Pittsburgh was just flexing muscles back in the ’70s As the City of Champions, And the drugs of choice were marijuana,…
Ben Munisteri Dance Project puts a fresh spin on traditional modern dance.
“We put our own meanings on human beings when they are half-naked onstage moving around.”
Seussical the Musical
Seussical struggles and strains to hold everything packed inside it.
New productions of Elephant Man, Agnes of God and As You Like It, plus the local premiere of area playwright Amy Hartman’s Mercy and the Firefly.
Four new stage productions to watch out for.
As seen in a big Carnegie retrospective, artist Paul Thek explored connections between body and soul
Thek’s work grappled with sex and spirituality, and understood each in terms of the other.
Allderdice grad Mac Miller garners national attention with his latest mixtape
“The thing about Pittsburgh is, if you can’t rap, no one likes you. You can’t get by doing the minimum.”
Season starts for the Pittsburgh Power; enjoy them while they’re still around
“Blackout Night” doesn’t seem like a good play on words for a team named after electricity.
Make Your own Granola Bars
Gets your oats in order with these easy-to-make snacks
Pittsburgh-via-Tokyo garage band Test Patterns plays one last show
“The show costs six bucks. Or bring a canned good for Yago. Or toilet paper.”
Mix Things Up With Grapefruit Juice
Several Pittsburgh bars have begun offering new twists on the gin-grapefruit combo, which dates at least as far back as the 1940s.
Savage Love
DEAR READERS: Folks who have the Savage Love app get the Savage Love Letter of the Day (SLLOTD) delivered to their iPhones or Androids. This week, I’m running three recent SLLOTDs to give print-only readers a taste of what they’re missing. I’m also giving myself a break: I’m dashing around the country on a book…
City Theatre’s Precious Little
Like most really good plays, this new work by Madeleine George is about more than one thing. But one of its concerns involves both up-to-the-minute science and the human complexities that play out on the flip side of such studies. As befits a play largely about language and communication, the protagonist is a linguist. Brodie…
Sneak Preview: Multiple Allegations Against Pittsburgh Police Officer
One of City Paper’s charming little quirks is that while our print edition comes out Wednesday, its contents aren’t uploaded to the website until Thursday. That’s because we want people to pick up our print edition — each copy of which is lovingly assembled by master craftsmen — and we don’t wish to scoop ourselves. …
Pittsburgh police officer subject of multiple allegations
For local advocates of police accountability, 1996 was a pivotal year. Complaints of police abuse led to an American Civil Liberties Union federal lawsuit against the city that year, as activists pressed for an independent review board to investigate misconduct. And in a 1996 audit of the city’s handling of misconduct complaints, then-city controller Tom…
