Will prevailing wage bill prevail?
As you may have heard by now, city council has introduced legislation that would require paying a prevailing wage to custodial, food-service, or other employees employed at projects that receive city tax-subsidies. The legislation has been talked about for months now, and is the first of a handful of initiatives designed to improve labor and…
Attack Theatre’s Incident[s] in the Strip
It’s no less fun than remarkable to see an established performance troupe that seems to get better almost every time out. But that’s what it feels like is happening with Attack Theatre. The group’s latest combines the sophistication they’ve taught audiences to expect with a good deal of accessibility and humor. And it reaffirms Attack’s…
Candide at Quantum Theatre
You oughtn’t need a reason beyond Leonard Berstein’s stunningly crafty and melodic score to see this stage musical based on Voltaire’s classic. The witty lyrics, by poet Richard Wilbur and others (including Stephen Sondheim) don’t hurt, of course, nor does director Karla Boos’ cheeky deployment of the venue, a former Bloomfield auto-body shop, for all…
Tuition Tax a Test for Financial Overseers?
No one knows what lies in store for Mayor Luke Ravenstahl’s 1 percent tuition tax. But one thing seems clear: It’s going to be a test for the state-appointed financial oversight process. There’s already been some attention given to a letter city councilor Bill Peduto sent to the Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority today. In that letter,…
City GOP reacts to tuition tax
If you’re anything like me, the first reaction you had to Mayor Luke Ravenstahl’s tuition tax (or as I’m calling it, the “Get the Hell Off My Lawn” tax) was, “Well, that’s all fine and good. But what are city Republicans going to think of it?” Well, wonder no longer, my friends. For Bob Hillen,…
Short List: Week of November 12 – 19
There is familiarity and comfort in visiting the same coffee shop every morning, or eating lunch at the same café. What happens when our routines are disrupted is the focus of Attack Theatre’s Incident[s] in the Strip, which premieres Nov. 13-21 at the dance troupe’s new Strip District home, in Pittsburgh Opera’s headquarters. Recurring sequences…
Good Judge of Characters
Actor Bingo O’Malley’s decades-long career enters another stage
Pirate Radio
In mid-1960s Britain, rock ‘n’ roll wasn’t played on the state-run radio, but instead was beamed from pirate-radio ships offshore. Richard Curtis’ ensemble film is a comedic valentine to that past, when radio was staffed by folks who loved music. (In those days, radio done right could carry a whiff of vicarious anarchy.)
His film…
The Men Who Stare at Goats
Did the U.S. Army really have a secret division devoted to alternative warfare rooted in mind-control, telekinesis and other forms of harnessed paranormal activity? (Why not — especially if the Soviets might have been doing it, too.)
Adapted from Jon Ronson’s book, Grant Heslov’s nonlinear film is a Cold War comedy somewhat awkwardly shoehorned into…
A Christmas Carol
Santa’s bringing you a mixed bag with this latest iteration of Charles Dickens’ popular fable of a miserly old man redeemed at the holidays. The motion-capture animation on Jim Carrey as Scrooge is very life-like (this is a deliciously creepy old man), but all the other characters look like rubber dolls. It’s grand that director…
Amreeka
Muna (Nisreen Faour), a Palestinian single mom living in the West Bank, leaps at the chance to provide a better life for her teen-age son, and emigrates to the United States. But the excitement of moving in with her sister’s family in an Illinois town soon wears off. Muna can find only a low-paying job…
The students! United! Will Forever Be Retweeted!
Oh, you’ve done it now, Mayor Ravenstahl. You have awoken the sleeping — or perhaps hungover — giant. In response to the mayor’s 1 percent tuition tax, students have launched their own Facebook page. The Facebook group — called Pittsburgh College Students Against the Tax on College Students — already has 137 members. Which ain’t…
Neighborhood 3: Requisition of Doom at Bricolage
It’s a play about a video game about killing zombies, but don’t be fooled. Bricolage’s production of Jennifer Haley’s inventive script is as striking a show as I’ve seen this year. One key to its success is a risky choice by director Matt M. Morrow and the Bricolage cast and crew: Most of the dialogue,…
The Three Rivers Film Festival
The annual film-festival of foreign, indie and documentary films continues.
Caffe Davio
A jewel box of a restaurant, full of warmth, welcome and beautifully prepared Sicilian cuisine
Topdog/Underdog
They are charismatic and physical actors, deftly moving about their tiny stage and reaping big laughs with subtle gestures.
Roberto Zucco
Characters blab monologues about gender roles and authority, but we still know nothing about them.
Carousel
When the progenitors of a style purposely explode that same style, it’s fairly amazing.
Candide
Listen and be amazed and delighted.
Pittsburgh Ballet stages the area premiere of a new ballet about the Holocaust and its legacy.
“Genocide is still taking place today. … We have a responsibility to call that out when we see it and not be bystanders.”
This Just In: November 12 – 19
Highlights from the local TV news: Brownie Points
Protesting the Protesters
Activist denounces anarchists at Merton Center Dinner
Over the Limit
Majority of Parking Authority board terms still expired
Turning Pro Se
Being one’s own lawyer becoming more common in family court
Local hard-rockers Rainstation Zero are back with new singer, new release
While the guitars remain fairly heavy and saturated throughout, the band largely avoids the morass of doom and gloom that swallows so many post-grunge rock bands.
Bubble π
A wide variety of inventive cookies is a reason to pop in for a treat.
Calliope presents Pittsburgh Songwriters Circle and The Wiyos this week
Pittsburghers are more likely to know The Wiyos for their recent appearance opening for Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson and John Mellencamp.
The Academy Is … heads up the Alterative Press “Fall Ball ’09” tour at Altar Bar
“You can go to Guitar Center and see a million guys who are way better than you at guitar, but can never figure out how to write a structured song with a great melody.”
Aviation Blondes release power-poppy Edge of Forever on Get Hip
After meeting Steve Morrison in the 2005 Tribute to WXXP at the Rex Theatre, singers Lexi Rebert and Jen Fisher began helping the guitarist with a solo CD that he was trying to finish.
Class Conflict
Old Pittsburgh versus New Pittsburgh
Savage Love
I am a 30-year-old woman, married for five years. Lately I have become more aware that I am turned on by the idea of bondage, specifically men locked up in chastity devices. I am ashamed of myself because it seems, well, pretty perverse and disturbed. My husband is a pretty dominant alpha-male type. I am…
The places where we simply wait are the subject of Transfer Lounge, at Space Gallery.
“It’s interesting to me that the ways of communicating have changed so much, but the content remains the same, about longing to be part of a network.”
