Future Ten’s Submission Overload
The eighth edition of this annual independent festival of 10-minute plays was stronger than last year’s. That’s not surprising, given that the national call for submissions generated more than 550 scripts, a threefold increase. Still, the overall quality of the eight plays chosen – all fast-paced comedies — was impressive. Partly credit seasoned directors Todd…
MP3: Black Crash
Hey, it had been a couple weeks in a row that I’d actually gotten the MP3 posted on Monday – cut me some slack. This week’s free MP3 comes from the local band Black Crash, which is preparing to release a new full-length, Sometimes Dreams. I reviewed the record positively a couple weeks back; fans…
Jordan Miles write-in campaign hopes to send a message — however quietly — to Zappala
Jordan Miles for District Attorney? It’s unlikely to happen, but local police-accountability activists trying to drawn attention to their efforts have started a “whisper” campaign urging Allegheny County voters to write the former CAPA student’s name on the Nov. 8 ballot instead of voting for current District Attorney Stephen Zappala. “[Zappala] runs unopposed every time,”…
LeavingPittsburgh.com
When it comes to Pittsburgh pride, Max Buriak isn’t modest. Asked about his blog, LeavingPittsburgh.com, the web designer credits his late father. “My dad was sort of a Lawrenceville philosopher,” says Buriak, speaking by phone from his office on the South Side. “We were always discussing these ideas he had.” His father, Fredrick Buriak,…
Short List: November 3 – 9
Thu., Nov. 3 — Words Chatham University’s annual Bridges to Other Worlds literary festival begins. The free, three-day fest bears the theme “Wild Thing, You Make My Heart Sing: The Essay in the 21st Century,” but there’s poetry too (though not necessarily any ’60s garage rock). In fact, the festival starts tonight with poet and…
Another Round
Years ago, John Carson submitted a request to the Guinness Brewery, asking it to help sponsor his 1979 art project, tentatively titled “A Bottle of Guinness in Every Pub in Buncrana.” The brewery was not enthusiastic. “I cannot see any merit at all in the idea … as it would seem to only perpetuate the…
Savoy
Everybody has a list of things they’re going to do “someday.” In our case, the list includes a lot of restaurants whose dinners we’ve relished and whose brunch service we intend — someday — to partake of, too. When it came time to go to Savoy, the latest upscale addition to the Strip, we decided…
Grandview Bakery
About a year and a half ago, the Mount Washington Community Development Corporation canvassed the neighborhood to ask residents what kind of businesses they’d like to see open in the area. One of the top requests was a bakery. So, Vickie Pisowicz decided to satisfy the community’s sweet tooth. On Oct. 11, the Mount Washington…
Savage Love
There are lots of gay and bi guys — some estimates put it at 25 to 30 percent — who never have anal sex. I am marrying a man with two children — a boy and a girl — and we want to include them in our wedding party. My best friend and maid…
Plot Points
“I was driving on the King’s Road with my cart and horse …” So begins another tale, told by the beaming black man on the Pittsburgh Renaissance Festival’s Rose Stage. The audience smiles. Temujin Ekunfeo stands easily before them, facing rows of wooden benches, families with children, people stepping lightly on ground still wet from…
Maximum Occupancy: Occupy movement looking to get most bang for protest actions.
David Meieran was working on a laptop inside Occupy Pittsburgh’s media tent on Oct. 26 when someone peeked inside to tell him the march was about to begin. “What march?” Meieran asked, looking puzzled. Minutes later, a dozen occupiers — a few holding signs, a couple banging on drums — marched from the Occupy Pittsburgh…
Runaway Growth
The Experimental Generation In June 2010, a dermatologist cut a weird growth from my left wrist. The growth was wart-sized, grape-purple and stippled black. It was sensitive to the touch and bled when scratched. Two weeks later, the doctor told me the tumor was malignant — melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer. The doctor…
On the Record with Michael Cuscuna
Michael Cuscuna set the standard on box-set reissues when he launched Mosaic, a mail-order label that works in deluxe, comprehensive jazz re-releases. When CDs caught on, he became the go-to guy for numerous labels re-releasing their back catalogs. How do you keep from getting jaded? I don’t think you ever get jaded when…
Mr. Roboto Project re-opens with ADD Fest 14
“I started going to Roboto a long time ago,” guitarist Chris Niels says, during his acoustic set at the pre-opening party for the venue’s new location. “It sure as hell kept me out of a lot of trouble.” That sentiment is likely shared by many who frequented The Mr. Roboto Project during its more-than-10-year tenure…
Critics’ Picks: November 4 – 5
[FOLK] + FRI., NOV. 4 Indigo Girls are a lot of things to a lot of people. They’re activists, pop stars, out-of-the-closet lesbians and the quintessential granola-eating folkies. They’re also ripe for parody, but the kind of parody that generally admits a great deal of respect: Amy Ray and Emily Saliers are great songwriters, and…
Two Feldman compositions
Morton Feldman wrote “Patterns in a Chromatic Field” and “Crippled Symmetry” within a few years of each other; while both last 80 to 90 minutes, the comparisons end there. “Crippled Symmetry” has been recorded on several occasions, but Jan Williams, who played vibraphone in its 1983 premiere and has recorded it himself, says that a…
Pitt presents Morton Feldman mini-festival
While growing up in Buffalo, Amy Williams was introduced to musicians and composers on a regular basis. Her percussionist father, Jan Williams, was a faculty member at the University of Buffalo’s music school, so concerts in the Williams living room and musical dinner guests were fairly typical occurrences as well. But it wasn’t until years…
Pittsburgh Filmmakers turns 40
During Nov. 4’s opening-night Three Rivers Film Festival party, Pittsburgh Filmmakers will mark its 40th anniversary with champagne, birthday cake and special guests including 11 of the group’s 13 board presidents. One is Robert Gaylor, a Filmmakers co-founder and, from 1971-76, the group’s first president. Gaylor, 74, lives in Santa Fe, N.M., where he founded…
Anonymous
Director Roland Emmerich is known for his big, noisy CGI-heavy spectacles (2012, The Day After Tomorrow, Independence Day). Yet his latest film, Anonymous, promises to be an actor-friendly thriller about Shakespeare, his playwriting contemporaries, and various British peers and royals. Anonymous’ conceit is that the Earl of Oxford (Rhys Ifhans), who has a complicated personal…
Three Rivers Film Festival
The 30th annual Three Rivers Film Festival, presented by Pittsburgh Filmmakers, runs from Fri., Nov. 4, through Nov. 19. The program of more than four dozen films includes foreign-language works, American independents, documentaries, shorts, local works and experimental cinema. Of note this year, a focus on the environment, with five documentaries on food, industrial problems…
Food author Mark Bittman brings his recipe for changing the world to Pittsburgh.
Mark Bittman is a “lessmeatarian” and he thinks you should be, too. Since the early 2000s, the New York Times journalist and cookbook author has eaten a semi-vegetarian diet, with more plant foods and fewer animal products. When he became a “Vegan before 6” — as in, 6 p.m. — he managed to lose weight,…
The Hamiltons
Ah, nothing like a story about plucky orphans and family values to warm the heart — and curdle the blood come Halloween time. Yes, unlucky orphans are often the victims in traditional scary fairy tales. But the opposite narrative has a legacy just as long, from Hansel and Gretel to (my fave) The Little Girl…
Crimes of the Heart
The trials and tribulations of Southern women are the meat and potatoes — er, fried chicken and grits — of a fine tradition in American fiction. But the Magrath sisters of Mississippi are no aristocratic belles, faded or otherwise. They have led a rich if not privileged life. When handed lemons, they do make lemonade…
Zombie Apocalypse
Bricolage Theatre is throwing a big ol’ party with the latest, and last, installment of this year’s Midnight Radio series: Zombie Apocalypse. Presented as a staged live radio program, Zombie is a hootenanny of comedy and mayhem. The bulk of the evening is Tami Dixon’s adaptation of Night of the Living Dead: Parts of the…
New local fiction from Hilary Masters and Jim Ray Daniels
Reviews of the first 50 pages of local fiction releases. Post: A Fable By Hilary Masters(BkMk Press, 274 pp., $16.95) Readers of Masters’ previous novel, the soberly realistic Elegy for Sam Emerson, might be unprepared for the ludic burst of invention that is his 10th. It’s set seemingly a few months into what might be…
The August Wilson Center hosts a Black Dance Festival
For Greer Reed-Jones, organizing a Black Dance Festival was easier than it would have been for most. To complete a list of participating groups and performers, she needed only to look to the connections she had made in her own career. For instance, Reed-Jones is a former company member with both Dayton Contemporary Dance Company…
Michael Cuscuna: Unabridged interview
Michael Cuscuna set the standard on box-set reissues when he launched Mosaic, a mail-order label that works in deluxe, comprehensive jazz re-releases. Released in limited editions, each set compiled a complete overview of a particular period in an artist’s career, packing it in a 12-inch-by- 12-inch box, with a detailed booklet full of information that…
Occupy Pittsburgh weighs policy on financial donations
In an effort to ensure the financial stability of Occupy Pittsburgh, nearly 100 members of the local protest movement debated a proposal last night that would link Occupy Pittsburgh to a nonprofit fiscal sponsor, allowing the group to accept tax-deductible donations. Two hours into the meeting, however, things turned ugly when one of the proposal’s…
