Bus-whacked
“I can say reliable and dedicated funding source in my sleep,” Save Our Transit organizer Stephen Donahue told the Port Authority Board on Nov. 3 at a special hearing on its proposed service cuts and fare increases to address a $30 million deficit projected for 2005. Because Pennsylvania’s General Assembly failed to provide just…
The Melting Pot: A Fondue Restaurant
Location: Station Square, South Side. 412-261-3477 Hours: Mon.-Thu. 4-10 p.m.; Fri. 4-11 p.m.; Sat. 3-11 p.m.; Sun. 3-9 p.m. Prices: Appetizers $14 per couple; entrees $16-20 Fare: Strictly fondue Atmosphere: Cozy and dim Liquor: Full bar Were we looking forward to fondue at The Melting Pot? Let’s just say that where cheese is involved, no…
Something Wicca This Way Comes
Bing Crosby suddenly unavoidable? Scent of cut pine in the air? Must be time again for the Pagan Solstice Social. Diane Dahm of Greenfield, spokesperson for the local pagan group Promise of Iris Pagan Outreach, says recognition of those who adhere to any of a variety of Pagan faiths is improving — a…
Back to School
There have been a few pleasant surprises in this otherwise grim election season. For one thing, it seems like non-traditional households– who’ve long been a target for Republican rhetoric about declining moral values — might have an unexpected ally: Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum. In recent days, we’ve learned that Mr. Family Values, who once…
I would like to know if there is any connection between St. Clair and Upper St. Clair.
It’s a little hard to unpack your question. Sure there’s a connection. Without a “St. Clair,” there’d be no place for Upper St. Clair to be above … and for those of us who know the community, it’s safe to say that feeling above things is a key part to the Upper St. Clair experience.…
Specter of Defeat
As a liberal, I don’t get much of a chance to gloat these days. So let me just say this to the rabidly religious folk who wanted to deny Sen. Arlen Specter the chairmanship of the Senate Judiciary Committee: Ha ha, he he, hoo hoo, you lost again. And they say WE’RE the…
Political Horsepower
Everything seemed to be coming up cherries for Charles J. Betters in June 2003. The self-made development magnate from Beaver County had the land, the plan and the team that seemed a good bet to capture one of a handful of lucrative licenses to operate slot machines in Pennsylvania. The land was a 634-acre parcel…
Alexander
In his film about one of history’s greatest conquerors — a man who lived well before the invention of the moist towelette — Oliver Stone sets the table in a rather modern way: with a scene of domestic violence. The child who will become Alexander the Great is in the bedchamber of…
A conversation with Sketch Master Flexx
How did you end up in this house? I had been in another house, and I knew this one was empty. The old couple who owned it, the man died and the wife didn’t want to live here, so she said I could. I’ve been here since January. When I came in, it…
Spining the Globe
Bob Marley lying on an unlikely (and premature) deathbed, an assassin’s bullet having pierced his flesh. Fela Kuti, the Black President: Nigeria’s neo-fascist government’s most wanted. Crass, The Clash, Angelic Upstarts, the Redskins: punk gigs punctuated regularly by the exclamation point of radical-right hooks and police batons. Chuck D, Dr. Dre and Tupac…
Head in the Clouds
When today’s glamorous actresses go slumming for Oscar, they inevitably follow their hard-won drah-mah-tic success with a pretty picture to remind us how beautiful they are and how brave it was to forego such vanities that other time. After her Best Actress role as the street-ravaged serial killer Aileen Wournos in last year’s…
Hustling Is Not Stealing (496 pp., $22.50, paper)Exchange Is Not Robbery (424 pp., $22.50, paper)
Hustling Is Not Stealing and Exchange Is Not Robbery, a two-volume oral diary of a young Ghanaian woman’s multifaceted existence as an “ashawo,” or bar girl, couldn’t be any timelier. Because what little media information we receive of Africa centers on AIDS, genocide and famine, these texts supply us with an anthropological study that not…
CHRISTMAS WITH THE KRANKS
Forget the obligatory last-reel round-up of saccharine “true meaning of Christmas” gestures. What this broad holiday comedy from Joe Roth really emphasizes is that Christmas is all about the trappings. And by “Christmas” the film means what Dec. 25 represents to white, middle-class, Christian suburbanites: processed ham, vulgar light displays, plastic snowmen, silly sweaters –…
THE SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS MOVIE
When King Neptune’s crown is stolen, SpongeBob and his starfish buddy Patrick set off from Bikini Bottom on a perilous journey to retrieve the royal headgear in Stephen Hillenburg’s feature-length adaptation of the popular Nickelodeon cartoon series. Our plucky albeit easily distracted heroes face dangers that range from amusingly terrifying (a biker gang) and naturalistic…
TARNATION
In a perverse yet highly watchable form of therapy, thirtysomething filmmaker Jonathan Caouette creates his own autobiography — a trippy mish-mash of home-video footage, snapshots, film clips, various sound recordings and songs — all tossed together on his home computer. Such a self-indulgent, deeply personal venture might not have worked, but for the grim horrors…
Media Mess Age
Don’t be fooled, says Amy Goodman: The seeming uptick in diversity of political opinion you might have noted lately in the mass media isn’t happening because media outlets suddenly started doing their jobs. It’s because some of the powerful folks whose views they parrot — i.e., Democrats intent on distinguishing themselves from Republicans during…
Building Security
Doing Downtown Pittsburgh’s literal dirty work, janitors toil for low wages at tough jobs with little security because they aren’t usually employed directly by the skyscrapers’ owners and managers. Instead, the city’s real-estate captains hire cleaning subcontractors, who, in turn, hire just enough workers to carry out their contracts. Should management decide to switch…
