Lynn Cullen Live 05/08/12
Video Archive Phone guest: Susan; adjectives in location names; DWTS update; Obits: Maurice Sendak, Where the Wild Things Are / Carl Bernadotte, Prince of Sweden; Berlusconi trials; 92 year old woman selling suicide kits; greenhouse gas emissions; Florida officals refuse a man to open Japanese restaurant called Fuku; same sex marriage; some words from Lynn’s…
Lynn Cullen Live 05/07/12
Video Archive Pittsburgh Marathon text updates; Kentucky Derby; jockeys may be replaced by robots; woman Skyping w/ husband in Afghanistan, is shot dead right in front of her; Sarkozy lost French election; Pirates winning some, losing some; a busier downtown Pittsburgh; people who make $50K a year tend to be happier in every aspect of…
Pirates anti-bullying video comes out swinging for “It Gets Better Project”
The Pittsburgh Pirates will join 50,000 other contributions to the It Gets Better Project, as the club debuts an anti-bullying video tonight. The project to get the club to participate began last year and was spearheaded by local lesbian blogger and activist, Sue Kerr. Kerr first reported the news on her blog, Pittsburgh Lesbian Correspondents.…
New Beedie vid for your Friday
Beedie’s new video, “Old Soul.”
Lynn Cullen Live 05/04/12
Video Archive May the fourth be with you!; brain imaging study — conservatives vs. liberals; people who hate Michelle Obama; importance of swing state Ohio — tough state for Obama to win; our country is still very racially divided; new sculptures in Gateway Center are REALLY life-like; watching black men say hello to each other;…
Lynn Cullen Live 05/03/12
Video Archive Guest: Tom Sokolowski; Tom looks like Lee Harvey Oswald; Munch’s “The Scream” sold for $120 million; 2nd Mona Lisa currently on display at the Louvre; secret Da Vinci; Warhol Authentication Board is no more; Nasher Museum struggling w/ glare of new condo building; sculptures in Gateway Center; just because you like a piece…
County Controller decries fiscal situation, blames governor
County Controller Chelsa Wagner had harsh words for Gov. Tom Corbett, and his proposed budget cuts, as she outlined the county’s finances today. “I think it’s very, very, very fair to say we’ve been dealt a bad hand by the state,” Wagner said at a morning news conference. “And it’s one I find particularly disappointing…
Talking Race at Dutchman
Bricolage Productions is staging this touchstone 1964 play specifically to spark conversations about race in America. Judging from the post-show talk last Saturday, on opening weekend, it’s working. In fact, the Saturday installment of the Between the Lines discussion series lasted longer than the 50-minute play itself. To one ticket-holder, the sessions (not to mention…
On the Record with Steve Sciulli
KRAFTWERK’S AUTOBAHN REIMAGINED featuring RAISED BY MACHINES with UNIVERSAL BEAT UNION, YOCTONAUT. 9:30 p.m. Sat., May 5. Howlers 4509 Liberty Ave. Bloomfield. $5 (or free if you wear your Kraftwerk T-shirt). 412-682-0320 or howlerscoyotecafe.com Steve Sciulli has played for decades in Pittsburgh bands like Carsickness and Ploughman’s Lunch, but he says he’s never played a…
Savage Love
I am a straight 29-year-old guy and I’ve been into ball busting — having my balls kicked and stomped — since I was 14. The thing is, I only enjoy getting my balls busted by other guys. I thought I might be bisexual, but I don’t get turned on by the idea of sucking cock…
Future Tenant hosts the sharp and engaging Broken Slogan
BROKEN SLOGAN continues through May 5. Future Tenant 819 Penn Ave. Downtown. 412-296-2332 With Future Tenant known for freewheeling experimentalism, the exhibition Broken Slogan defies expectations with its professionalism and polish. The three artists here are linked by a loose but operational theme of words and images mined from persuasion-minded media and marketing, fragmented to…
Short List: May 3 – 9
In 2006, rock music was banned in Iran, and members of The Casualty Process were suppressed both for playing it and for having a female singer; at one point, the musicians were jailed and heavily fined for simply holding a concert. Now, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Natch Nadjafi and guitarist/bassist Shayan Amini create their aggressive, industrial-influenced…
POP!, a surreal musical take on the shooting of Andy Warhol, comes to City Theatre
City Theatre presents POP! Thu., May 5-May 27. City Theatre 1300 Bingham St. South Side. $15-60. 412-431-2489 orCityTheatre Company.org The cast of POP!, the musical about Andy Warhol getting shot, are rehearsing a scene that revolves around a brown paper bag. Actually, several bags — the ones their characters, denizens of Warhol’s wild 1960s Factory…
Union Pig and Chicken
Union Pig and Chicken 220 N. Highland Ave. East Liberty. 412-363-7675 Hours: Mon.-Thu. lunch 11 a.m.-2:30 p.m., dinner 5-10 p.m.; Fri.-Sat. lunch 11 a.m.-2:30 p.m., dinner 5-11 p.m. Prices: Meats $7-22; sides $3-7 Liquor: Whiskey and beer Chef Kevin Sousa sharpened his knives at some of the city’s finest dining establishments, and pioneered locally the…
Dutchman
DUTCHMAN continues through May 12. Bricolage Production Co. 937 Liberty Ave. Downtown. 412-471-0999 or bricolagepgh.org The most depressing aspect of Bricolage’s production of 1964 Obie-winner Dutchman is that it is not a creaky, dated period piece. This nightmare subway ride crackles and sparks, bubbling over with racial tension — not to say hatred, even rage.…
JG’s Tarentum Station Grille the place for local history … and current events
JG’s Tarentum Station Grille captures the history of the sleepy Allegheny County borough in a nutshell. The bar/restaurant is housed in an old train depot; thousands of passengers, including President William Taft, passed though the building on their way to and from Pittsburgh. There’s even a long railroad mural—painted by local businessman Wally Sommer—detailing the…
Bus Stop
BUS STOP continues through Sat., May 5. Philip Chosky Theater Carnegie Mellon campus Oakland. 412-268-2407 or drama.cmu.edu Where’s the crotch? As enjoyable as the Carnegie Mellon University production of William Inge’s comedy Bus Stop is, there seems to be a big hole where a big … well, you get the idea. Set in a small-town…
Any Given Sundae
Any Given Sundae 2612 Brandt School Road, Wexford. 724-759-7454 It was Penguins playoff time and the scene inside Scott and Austin Smith’s Wexford joint was just as they’d hoped it would be — sports on the TVs and standing-room-only crowds. Except the Smiths don’t own a sports bar; they own an ice-cream shop. The father-son…
Photographer Arne Svenson takes an imaginative tack to explore childhood autism.
ABOUT FACE continues through May 9. The Andy Warhol Museum 117 Sandusky St. North Side. 412-237-8300 or warhol.org. As special needs go, autism spectrum disorder is probably the least widely understood. If people hear “autism,” they probably think Rain Man, or maybe Temple Grandin. But autism is impossible to spot from afar, and it’s sometimes…
The Five-Year Engagement
The Five-Year Engagement Directed by Nicholas Stoller Starring: Jason Segel, Emily Blunt, Chris Pratt, Alison Brie, Rhys Ifans The title is its own spoiler: In The Five-Year Engagement, chef Tom (Jason Segel) gets engaged to graduate student Violet (Emily Blunt) … and several years later, still no wedding. Circumstances get in the way: This cute,…
Boy
We’re introduced to Boy when the 11-year-old gives a recitation on the last day of school. Boy (James Rolleston), who lives in a hardscrabble Maori village on New Zealand’s eastern coast, describes his extended family — essentially a passel of parentless kids living with grandma; his various classmates (including siblings named for American prime-time soap…
Pittsburgh Re-Animated at Film Kitchen
FILM KITCHEN 8 p.m. Tue., May 15. Melwood Screening Room 477 Melwood Ave. N. Oakland. $6. 412-681-9500 If you set American Graffiti in Pittsburgh, crossed it with an animated Wings of Desire starring ballet dancers and scored it with churchy choral music that segues seamlessly into doo-wop, you’d have something like “Hill Dancers.” Artist Doug…
Damsels in Distress
Damsels in Distress Starts Fri., May 4. Manor In Whit Stillman’s new comedy of manners, a quartet of prim and proper young women set their sights on making the Seven Oaks college campus a more refined place. Led by queen bee Violet (Greta Gerwig), the girls run a suicide-prevention club (dispensing bromides and donuts); date…
Lynn Cullen Live 05/02/12
Video Archive Guest: Chris Potter; firearms allowed into Tampa for GOP convention; Obama’s trip / speech in Afghanistan; everything Penn State did wrong; nonprofit requirements & laws in PA; UPMC’s definition of profit is different from ours; Brown University voluntarily giving more money to Providence, RI to help the city; Port Authority isn’t helpful to…
Space Exchange gives some local musicians a weekly workout
SPACE EXCHANGE 9 p.m. Tuesdays. Thunderbird Café 4023 Butler St. Lawrenceville. Free. 412-682-0177 or thunderbirdcafe.net Musicians Ben Opie, David Throckmorton, Colter Harper, Chris Parker and Matt Booth keep busy with multiple projects at a time, occasionally collaborating with one another. Despite their differing musical styles, they understand the importance of trying out new work on…
The Greening of Larimer: Community’s future depends on reusing remnants of its past
Larimer is half-empty. The low-income, mostly African-American community adjacent to East Liberty is easily overlooked. Many Pittsburghers may think of it as “that neighborhood behind Target” — if they think of it at all. Thanks to a 90 percent population loss in recent decades, and the demolition of abandoned houses, about 40 percent of Larimer…
Jenesis Magazine reps Pittsburgh while expanding into the national market
JENESIS MAGAZINE FIFTH ANNIVERSARY PARTY feat. BEEDIE, DEVIN MILES, PYREX PRESS, HUBBS, JON QUEST. 10 p.m. Fri., May 11. Shadow Lounge 5972 Baum Blvd. East Liberty. $5. 18 and over. 412-363-8277 Jenesis wasn’t originally supposed to be a magazine at all. “I had an idea going for a clothing line called Jenesis,” explains Taylor Allderdice…
School Bust: PAT cuts will sharply impact student riders
For Beechview resident Susan Kelley’s teen-agers, Port Authority buses aren’t just how they get to Creative and Performing Arts High School in Downtown for an education. Using public transit is an education. “I don’t worry that they won’t be able to figure out how to get around a major city when they are grownups, because…
Sports Metaphors goes for the gold
SPORTS METAPHORS CD RELEASE with SKINLESS BONELESS, PSYCHIC BOOTS. 9 p.m. Fri., May 4. Howlers 4509 Liberty Ave Bloomfield. $5. 412-682-0320 or howlerscoyotecafe.com No matter what preconceptions may come to mind when one hears the band name “Sports Metaphors,” the band that actually goes by that name likely doesn’t fit them. There actually isn’t much…
Ring Leader
You don’t become a legend in professional wrestling without knowing how to send a message. And Dominic DeNucci has no trouble communicating, whether it’s in a wrestling ring or at a table for two at the Cranberry Township Denny’s. “Hey!” he interjects with a sharp clap of the hands when I begin to ask a…
Critics’ Picks: May 3 – 8
[ART ROCK] + THU., MAY 3 So many of the hallmarks of the early-’00s buzz band are fulfilled in Suckers: There are ethereal harmonies coexisting with dry, disaffected lead vocals. There are big, anthemic progressions. There are some bloopity-bloop synth things. If there’s a formula for Pitchfork/Stereogum success, these guys found it — but of…
Communication Breakdown
A confession: I was one of those kids who wanted to be president. For about 15 minutes. “It’s simple,” I told my father one night, flush with a grade-school lesson in political science. “This is a democracy. So my campaign will be, ‘I’ll do whatever most people want.'” “Ah, the people’s candidate!” my father said.…
