Lawyers step in where angels fear to tread: Another online post prompts legal action (UPDATED)
In the latest sign of an emerging trend, the Pittsburgh Media Scoops and Gossip site has apparently been served with a subpoeana to provide information that could identify an anonymous commenter. The site has publicly notified the commenter of the subpoena, and given him/her 30 days to respond. The subpoeana comes as part of a…
Ablaye Cissoko & Volker Goetze at Istanbul
I was drawn by the concept alone: a musical collaboration between a Senegalese griot singer who plays a traditional, 21-stringed kora, and a German-born jazz trumpeter. Cissoko dons traditional robes for the performance, but not counting the video projection that accompanied one song, that was the lone adornment on the suddenly large- and bare-looking Istanbul…
MP3 MONDAY: Nik Westman & the Central Plains
In case you missed the band’s CD release show last Friday, we’re offering you another chance to hear Nik Westman & the Central Plains, featured in the current issue of City Paper. “Elements of country, folk and indie rock weave in and out, resulting in a blend of songs that sounds impressively familiar but, in the…
Squirrel Hill Theater Closes
This will be the first weekend since 1936 that the Squirrel Hill Theater (the one on Forward) won’t be an option for moviegoers. The theater closed this week; its third-generation owner, Richard Stern, announced on Wednesday that the revenue just wasn’t there. Admittedly, the Squirrel Hill was never the best place in town to catch…
Short List: Week of March 4 – 11
You won’t need opera glasses to feel close to the performers for Pittsburgh’s newest opera troupe. As its name implies, the Microscopic Opera Company intends to draw you close to the contemporary operas it performs. Its founders are two emerging names in local music. Andres Cladera, who directs the Renaissance City men’s and women’s choirs,…
Additional Dialogue
An unprecedented artistic team-up helps Pittsburgh Public Theater set The Price
The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers
Ellsberg, the former Rand Corporation analyst who Xeroxed his way to fame, and to federal court, while trying to halt the Vietnam War, is the subject of Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith’s documentary. It’s admittedly a hagiography — Ellsberg even narrates — but still a good story, a real-life political thriller intertwined with a morality…
The Crazies
It’s another easygoing day in the American heartland … until the ordinary citizens of a small Iowa town adopt a 100-yard stare and start killing everybody in their path. Whatever is infecting these folks is spreading; masked military personnel seal off the town; and only a couple of brave souls are left — defending themselves…
Cop Out
Your tolerance for the one-note Tracy Morgan — and yet another pastiche of buddy-cop-movie tropes — will determine your enjoyment of this not-very-funny comedy. The film stars Morgan and Bruce Willis as New York cops who go off the clock to pursue some Mexican gangsters. (The cops persist in calling the Spanish speakers “French” –…
Brooklyn’s Finest
Three cops from a tough Brooklyn stationhouse find their troubled paths all lead to one even-more-screwed up destination. Depressed and boozy Eddie (Richard Gere) is days away from retirement, and could care less about coaching green recruits. Family man Sal (Ethan Hawke) is spiraling into debt, and nervously eyeing all the dirty money that crosses…
Film Kitchen
Short docs, including some from P-G photographers, highlight this local film screening
The Pittsburgh Jewish-Israeli Film Festival
The annual festival offers nearly two dozen films from Israel and around the world representing Jewish experiences from the comic and dramatic to the inspirational.
Bella Sera
A restaurant with a conscience that also pleases the eye and the palate.
With a new DVD, the LGBT youths of Dreams of Hope look to heal — and to teach.
“Like, it really doesn’t matter which bathroom you go in.”
Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me
Neither snow nor sleet nor the harshest February in Pittsburgh history will stay Phase 3 Productions from launching its second season, with Frank McGuinness’ 1992 drama, Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me. Alas, the past 18 years have not dimmed the timeliness of this story of modern Westerners kidnapped and held hostage by more medieval-minded extremists.…
Time After Time
Nearly every time physical peril is at hand, the characters sit down and sing love ballads to each other … and poof! goes dramatic tension.
Stirring Support
Students fight for union food workers
What’s in a Name?
CMU students say their identity
Exhibition Games
Group hoping obscure sports catch on in city
This Just In: March 4 – 11
Highlights from the local TV news: Soldiering On
Pittsburgh’s Caress of Steel City and Distant Signals pay tribute to Rush
Some in the audience play air drums; one group requests songs and bellows along with the singer. Two women high-five and dance to “Tom Sawyer.”
The Carolina Chocolate Drops balance old-time music and modernity
“Things have not changed that much — songs are still written about love and disappointment and goin’ to jail and gettin’ out and killin’ somebody and almost gettin’ killed.”
Bristol’s Zun Zun Egui bring post-modern psychedelia to Brillobox
“Bristol has a history of welcoming creativity,” says bassist Luke Mosse. “It’s cheaper, more relaxed, and quite racially integrated compared to other places in the U.K.”
Calliope presents the Mick Moloney’s Green Fields of America
Combining music, dance and folklore, Moloney is able to combine a talent for music with his passion for education.
Local songwriter Nik Westman releases debut with his band, the Central Plains
“I really grew up listening to Indian music,” Westman says. “My parents listened to that and Bob Marley.”
JT’s Rib Shack
A unique “chunky chunk” sauce rules this BBQ joint.
Savage Love
OK: Female, married 15 years, one young child. No sex with husband over last five years. Have tried therapy, talking, not talking, confrontation — you name it, Dan, I tried it. Lingerie, kink, porn. Seriously, everything. A year-and-a-half ago, I got into a relationship with a married guy, a man who also wasn’t getting any…
Note to campaign workers: See if you can hire on with “None of the above”
I’ve sort of put off writing about the latest round of Quinnipiac University polling, because the narrative is pretty firmly established. Once again, it turns out that for the most part, voters have no idea who the candidates for statewide office are. Yes, state Attorney General Tom Corbett will be the Republican nominee … and…
Group exhibition Cluster shows a wide swath of local artists in fine form.
The twitching canvas is intermittently obliterated by a grasping green hand that serves as both enforcer of order and demon-guide to the flummoxed viewer.
