Industrial-dance pioneers Front Line Assembly play Mr. Small’s Theatre
Many believed Bill Leeb’s trademark aggression had run out of gas. Boy, were they wrong.
Not Much of a Party
Pittsburgh City Controller City Council District 1 City Council District 3 City Council District 7 City Council District 9 Pittsburgh School Board This was supposed to be a different article. It was supposed to be a story about a hotly contested race for mayor between Mayor Luke Ravenstahl and his challenger, City Councilor Bill…
City Council District 7
The race for District 7 pits a name-brand incumbent against a brash newcomer. In one corner is incumbent Len Bodack Jr. whose father and namesake was the former chair of the Allegheny County Democratic Party and a long-time state legislator. In the other stands political upstart Patrick Dowd, a private-school teacher from Highland Park seeking…
Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra at the Warhol
Antibalas had a lot more on its collective mind than some ’70s throwback or Fela-tribute act.
Pittsburgh City Controller
With no one challenging incumbent Luke Ravenstahl for mayor, this year’s race for city controller is the only citywide contest on the ballot. It’s also the first election since the office was vacated last year by Tom Flaherty, whose pugnacious style for better and worse defined the position — and much of the city’s political…
City Council District 9
After spending a few weeks on the District 9 campaign trail, you’ll hear the same ideas repeated over and over. And one of them, uttered by candidate Leah Kirkland at just about every event, sums up the district’s plight: “District 9,” Kirkland says, “has lost its way.” Pick up a newspaper, or talk to residents,…
La Fraction’s French angst hits Pittsburgh
Magali sings with a timbre of conviction that’s impossible to misread.
City Council District 1
In the city’s District 1 North Side neighborhoods, two challengers are vying for Darlene Harris’ seat. Harris, a former school-board member, won the seat in a special election last fall, when Pittsburgh City Council President Luke Ravenstahl vacated the office to become mayor after Bob O’Connor’s death. Robin Rosemary Miller has been president of the…
Pittsburgh School Board
Once notorious for its bickering, the Pittsburgh School Board has quieted down in recent years — even as a new superintendent, Mark Roosevelt, has ushered in sweeping changes. Roosevelt has pushed reforms that his predecessors struggled to complete: closing schools, opening up “learning academies” for students with lagging performance and creating new accountability standards for…
Texas prog-metal massacre Fair to Midland
With its blue-collar approach to rock-opera theatrics, the band has attracted like-minded fans beyond the hallowed halls of art-metal.
City Council District 3
The race in City Council District 3 figures to be close. The candidates themselves, though, couldn’t be farther apart. Incumbent Jeff Koch, of hardscrabble Arlington, is a 45-year-old former landscaper and public-works employee. Depending on your point of view, he’s either refreshingly down-to-earth or just plain earthy: Throughout a recent interview in his council office,…
City Council District 1
In the city’s District 1 North Side neighborhoods, two challengers are vying for Darlene Harris’ seat. Harris, a former school-board member, won the seat in a special election last fall, when Pittsburgh City Council President Luke Ravenstahl vacated the office to become mayor after Bob O’Connor’s death. Robin Rosemary Miller has been president of the…
Mourning in a second language
A poem by Joe Clark.
With Muscle-licious!, artist Barbara Weissberger offers something to chew on.
Weissberger is not out to say: Oh, hey, look how retro those afghans are, and isn’t it funny that I’ve put bodybuilders next to butterflies?
Who the #?&% Is Jackson Pollock?
A Kafka-esque journey into the rarefied world of capital-A art is the subject of Harry Moses’ entertaining documentary, now available on DVD.
In Full Bloom is an omnibus showcase for the local art scene.
In Full Bloom is an ambitious roundup of many deservedly familiar local names of the past 15 years.
Altar Boyz
In the real world, it’d be impossible to watch this show without a huge smile plastered on your face from start to finish.
Kristofer Collins’ King Everything is a promising poetry collection.
King Everything is, ineluctably, a book about here circa now, or at least Collins’ slice of it.
This Just In
Highlights from the local TV news.
The official band of Incredibly Strange Video releases debut
And really, who more appropriate to sing a hiccupping chorus that ends, “psycho rat fink fuck a go go”?
The Scarlet Letter
Like watching a 17th-century Syriana, we scratch our heads over where the characters are and what they’re talking about.
Narse’s The Craftsman EP a showcase for remixes
It places the full capabilities of electronic and synthetic instrumentation against the full capabilities of the human voice.
Sewickley Speakeasy
The Continental menu reminded us of occasional dress-up restaurant dinners from our childhoods, with chestnuts like duck á l’orange and Virginia spots.
Bands aren’t getting free beer!
Pittsburghers drink like fish, but they’re also tightwads about it.
Spider-Man 3
How entertaining is this all? Sufficiently.
A new exhibit explores the redesign of the New Hazlett Theater
EDGE’s renovation has re-opened the lobby from its worst days of double-knit-era dropped ceilings to make it airy and expansive.
The Condemned
This is the latest flick from the WWE’s film unit, designed to celebrate huge, no-neck men who grunt one-liners and pummel their opponents.
Savage Love
I’m a 42-year-old straight guy, married 15 years, no kids. I love my wife, and I have remained faithful. Recently, I opened a Second Life (SL) account, and created an avatar/alter ego for myself. I created an SL account with a female avatar because, although I’m straight and comfortable with my gender and sexuality, I’ve…
Grbavica
Zbanic keeps the sadness and tragedy well below the surface of what we see, until now and then it casts an ominous breeze, like an approaching storm.
On the Run
My very first apartment within the city limits was right on the Pittsburgh Marathon route. Until that May, I never gave marathon running any thought, but waking up to a marathon passing by was a transforming experience. There they were, pushing themselves to the outermost limits of human endurance — their breath and footsteps sounding…
Film Kitchen hosts a music-video contest with all-local sounds.
Contributing bands and musicians include: David Bernabo (of Vale and Year), Black Moth Super Rainbow, Boca Chica, Centipede E’est, Ben Opie (of Opek) and Shade. The contest also includes pieces by sound artist Steve Boyle and spoken-word artist Vanessa German.
Swartz And All
There is every chance Rick Swartz is going to get clobbered in the May 15 Democratic primary. There’s even a chance he’ll enjoy it. If so, he’ll probably be one of the few people having a good time on Election Day. “The democratic process in Allegheny County is shriveling on the vine,” says Swartz, executive…
After The Wedding
Jacob (Mads Mikkelsen), the director of an Indian orphanage, grudgingly returns to his native Denmark to meet with Jørgen (Rolf Lassgård), a wealthy businessman looking to dump a few million into a charity. But Jørgen’s unusual request for Jacob to attend his daughter’s wedding unearths a trunk of family secrets, with Jacob at the epicenter.…
A Mother’s Work …
Sojourner Truth was not an invited speaker when she made her now famous “Ain’t I a Woman?” speech. And you know what’s deeper? She never actually said “Ain’t I a woman?” either. “Sojourner” spoke near-perfect Dutch English — her birth name was Isabella Van Wagenen — and she was not attuned to ebonics. But Frances…
Next
Two-bit Vegas magician Cris Johnson (Nicolas Cage), who can see two minutes into his own future, becomes the focus of a double manhunt. The FBI, led by ball-buster agent Callie Ferris (Julianne Moore), needs him to find a stray nuclear bomb in Los Angeles. The terrorist group (one Russian, a couple Frenchmen, no known agenda)…
