Stop Paying for that Microphone
If Pittsburgh is the site of a 2004 presidential debate — and convention bureau officials say we’re in the running — then Chris Shaw has some suggestions: Open up the stage and free up the debating forum. Shaw, organizing director of Open Debates, a fledgling group in Washington, D.C., hopes that a “Citizen Debate…
Clean Sweep
“It’s one of the best agreements we’ve gotten in 20 years in this town,” says Tom Hoffman of a three-year contract secured Nov. 1 for Downtown’s 750 janitors. Hoffman, spokesman for Service Employees International Union, which represents local janitors, says the contract makes “huge strides” in reducing employee health care costs, upping wages and equalizing…
Regent Square: Friday, October 31, 1:54 p.m.
Dressed in her Halloween costume, 6-year-old Merce Pierce of Oakland admires a praying mantis that showed up unexpectedly at her pre-school’s “Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead)” celebration. The insect, no doubt enjoying the Indian summer weather, attracted much attention from students entering and exiting La Escuelita Arcoriris, a Spanish language…
Traffic signs for A new Pittsburgh
Most Pittsburgh neighborhoods are warm and welcoming places, happy to host any and all who want to move on in and join the party. A few neighborhoods, however, are populated by older residents who are downright hostile toward new arrivals — and their parties. If you see this sign, and you are young, tattooed, in…
Gun Shy
Like most people who end up shot dead by a police officer, Rodney Mathews made mistakes. But unlike many others who die at the hands of law enforcement, his death seems to stem from just an hour’s worth of serious lapses of judgment — perhaps on both sides. Police say that in that hour, during…
Playing All the Right Angles
Hard as it may be to believe, given the electric personalities and bold visions of Jim Roddey and his challenger, Democrat Dan Onorato, the Allegheny County Executive race is not Pennslyvania’s most interesting this November. That distinction goes to the mayoral race in Philadelphia, where the biggest issue of this election season has been…
In a Different League
It’s sad at this point in the season to realize that we can’t compete with Seattle, especially when we’ve been bragging about how great Pittsburgh is. But to be shown up by Cleveland? That’s the real embarrassment. Of course, I’m not talking about football teams, but rather about cities with Frank Gehry buildings. These places…
With Friends Like These
To make a movie, they say, it helps to “know somebody.” But making a film these days can take more than just knowing people in an entertainment center like New York City. The thirtysomething Vincente Stasolla found contacts in rural eastern Pennsylvania and Pittsburgh to be just as critical in completing his debut feature, The…
The Three Rivers Film Festival
The 22nd annual Three Rivers Film Festival, presented by Pittsburgh Filmmakers, runs from Fri., Nov. 7, through Sun., Nov. 23. The program of more than 45 films includes foreign-language works, American independents, experimental cinema and a locally produced feature, The Forgotten. New this year is a competitive, juried component for the Shorts Program, with prize-winners…
The Singing Detective
In The Singing Detective, a hospitalized mystery writer, scarred and crippled by full-body psoriasis, snarls sardonically at the wicked world as he imagines and re-imagines the vivification of his best novel — a ’50s detective thriller — while every now and then, the doctors, nurses, fictional characters and even the writer himself break out in…
Party Monster
Just in time for the Halloween season comes Party Monster, with Macaulay Culkin — gosh, they grow up so fast — in the true story of the legendary ’80s-era New York club kid Michael Alig, who dressed up each night in garish attire so he could dance, take drugs, get noticed and be fabulous till…
The Matrix Revolutions
The first “Matrix” movie was a cinematic jambalaya of post-apocalyptic science fiction, trippy camera moves, kung fu slapdowns and intriguing cyber-age metaphors that caught everybody by surprise. Installment No. 2, The Matrix Reloaded, was a needless sequel that upped the brain-teaser ante, went even further over the top with its digitally enhanced action sequences, and…
Chumbawamba
Had Leeds’ most famous anarchists been around in the early 1980s instead of today, Chumbawamba would’ve played some kind of ill-informed, untutored guitar thrash over which to scream anti-establishment lyrics, rather than singing them (often in four-part harmony) over simplistic dancefloor beats. In that case, my bet is that the same critics who despise the…
Denali
The Instinct, the sophomore release from Richmond band Denali, sounds like a rock-heavy Portishead, with the haunting falsetto vocals of lead singer Maura Davis constantly battling the intense guitar and synthesizer work of her brother, Engine Down frontman Keeley Davis. The result of the fighting really isn’t the type of record you would just pick…
Michael Ponti
If you’ve been hoarding away a few bucks for that extra special classical music bargain, then now’s the time to give in to the temptations of capitalism. Michael Ponti’s reissued complete survey of the piano music of Russian composer Alexander Scriabin is both a provocative musical investment and a best buy: This set really has…
A conversation with MICHAEL COLOSIMO
To be a Civil War reenactor, do you have to be authentic down to the underwear? No. There’s people who go that far – they call themselves the hardcore. I go to what’s comfortable. I will wear the period underwear just because it keeps the itching of the wool [uniform] down. Where did you…
My birth certificate says I was born at the Roselia Hospital, but I can’t find where it was. Can you tell me more about it?
Roselia was an early example of what Republicans call a “faith-based initiative.” The Roselia Home, Foundling Asylum and Maternity Hospital — as it was originally known — was a Catholic-sponsored haven for poor or unmarried women to give birth to their children and put them up for adoption. It was also a place to…
Talking Department Heads — Finally
Nearly a year after the City of Pittsburgh’s pleas for more revenue began, nearly three months after crippling layoffs were announced, and just nine days before a 2004 budget is due, Mayor Tom Murphy’s administration finally took its case directly to the people. In two Nov. 1 public hearings at the International Brotherhood of Electrical…
