Pittsburgh has a neighborhood named “Soho,” directly across the Birmingham Bridge. My mother was raised there, when it was predominantly a Russian immigrant community, and I have always wanted to know how Soho got its name.
Soho is one of those weird places whose name seems vaguely familiar, but few people actually know where it is. It’s a lot like Shangri La, or Idaho, or even Glenwood. (Sure, you’ve driven across the Glenwood Bridge, but have you ever actually been to Glenwood?) In fact, Soho isn’t even a neighborhood at all,…
Letters to the Editor: May 23 – 30
Feedback from our readers.
Edwin van der Heide demonstrates sound thinking at Wood Street.
The effect is almost trance-inducing, a kind of reset button for the brain.
Offside
Panahi directs his nonprofessional cast to performances that for the most emerge as naturally as the social commentary does from the story.
The Warhol looks at global warming with 6 Billion Perps Held Hostage!
When the art works, it’s full of power and presence, making this show a must-see.
Waitress
There’s not a single original moment in Waitress, which can support neither its feeble feminism nor its quirky romanticism.
Emission Control?
No one has been a more vocal supporter of “green” policies than Pittsburgh City Councilor Bill Peduto … and yet at a May 17 council meeting no one was complaining more loudly than Peduto about a plan to have city employees use a fleet of hybrid automobiles. “I don’t believe all of this efficiency and…
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End
The ship has run aground, the rum barrel is empty and Captain Jack Sparrow is yesterday’s hero.
Program to help those who live with disabilities live where they please
Many people with disabilities are persuaded to go into institutionalized care, such as nursing homes, rather than live on their own.
Shrek The Third
Webteaser: The addition of cute babies is usually a sure sign of a franchise running out of steam
Motznik wants city to require cat registration
“You’re discriminating against dogs,” said a stone-faced Motznik, after learning that cats didn’t have to be licensed.
U-Carmen E Khayelitsha
Bizet’s glorious opera is sung in Xhosa, an African language that literally makes these otherwise traditionally rendered songs pop.
Pittsburgh n’@
From: http://workingstiffs.blogspot.com/ People Who Live in Beige Houses Have No Dreams I feel like somebody beat me. The house across the street is beige. Not a little beige. Totally beige. Beige siding, beige brick, beige railing and the garden consists of … drum roll please … beige river rock. Wooohooooo!The view from my dining-room window…
A local art-zine releases a big new video compilation.
Another favorite is Gordon Nelson’s “Sixties Teen Dance Party,” a deceptively simple reworking of an old home movie that, with a new soundtrack, becomes by turns sexy, comic, foreboding and borderline demonic.
Pill Hill
This is live theater at its finest — urgent and nuanced and inimitable in any other medium.
This Just In: May 23 – 30
Highlights from the local TV news.
Nine Parts of Desire
Raffo’s monologues are rooted not only in such (necessary) reportage, but in human beings, themselves complex and contradictory.
Psych rockers Midnite Snake celebrates new album with free outdoor show
“It’s like you can’t get divorced because the sex is too good.”
Akrasia releases studio album Aphrodite Kallipygos
Danylo wails like Cobain doing Meat Puppets covers, while Mike Buric’s screamy guitar leads bring the heavy high.
Brighton Beach Memoirs
Alec Silberblatt plays Jerome with the exact blend of far-too-smart adolescent and far-too-immature young man, and he gets a lot of laughs and dramatic tension juggling the two.
Chancellorpink is back for a melodramatic round two
For every hilarious romp like “Any Dude’s Song,” there’s a “Ballad of the Fat Old Perv.”
A Conversation with Michael Turner
Fourteen-year-old Michael Turner has big dreams. He’s an aspiring musician who hopes to make it big … but his ambitions for Pittsburgh are larger still. Turner — who was born in the Hill District, grew up in Homewood, and now lives in Larimer — wants violence-plagued neighborhoods to put aside their rivalries. He’s spoken at…
Seviche
Location: 930 Penn Ave., Downtown. 412-697-3120 Hours: Mon.-Sat. 5 p.m.-1 a.m. Prices: $7-12 Fare: Seven styles of seviche and tapas Atmosphere: See and be seen Liquor: Full bar Smoking: None permitted We’re always happy when a new restaurant opens, of course, but especially so when it fills a heretofore empty niche in local dining. Tapas,…
Savage Love
I’m an early-20s gay guy turned on by hypnosis. During my adolescent explorations of the Internet, I found a site with stories about “mind control,” usually involving the seduction of straight men. I was hooked. I’m not beating myself up for being a “bad person”; my desire to try this in real life is nil…
Over a Barrel
To this day, nearly four years after the summer night his Yellow Cab was commandeered by a pair of gun-toting 17-year-olds, Samuel Kweku Ayi-Kumi wonders how teen-agers get their hands on deadly firearms. “Guns should not be made easily accessible,” says Ayi-Kumi. “We need to keep them out of the hands of the minors.” An…
Wrench in the Machine
There may be hope for this stupid-ass town yet. Pardon my negativity, but when the boy king, Mayor Luke “Opie” Ravenstahl, was handed a guaranteed election win on a silver platter, I got pretty pessimistic about Pittsburgh politics. And I frankly thought the Democratic machine, which involves all the committeemen and women lining up like…
The Pittsburgh Jewish Music Festival offers a kaleidoscopic experience
“This is an accessible way to open your heart up to another culture which has a distinct history.”
Girl Talk, Khalifa, Takeover UK among Pittsburgh heavyweights taking the national stage
Something tells me that Night Ripper is even now spreading, one keg-stand at a time, through the world of Delta Kappa-whatevers.
Industrial percussion pioneer Z’EV visits Pitt
Despite a command of numerous languages and an acute interest in politics, Z’EV chooses to make percussive performance his main mode of communication.
