Election Post-Mortem, Part III
Okay, I keep harping on this idea that Pennsylvania’s increasing Democratic margin is masking a “red-shift” out here in the west. I’ll let it go soon, I promise. But MSNBC notes that despite “Obama’s impressive 11-point win in Pennsylvania … McCain’s Western PA strategy worked. The problem? There weren’t enough votes out there.” The site…
Election Post-Mortem, Part II
A thought on turnout: Based on the admittedly unofficial numbers turned in so far, I’m not sure we lived up to the hype. We heard a lot of talk about how large turnout was going to be, the long lines at polling stations, etc. But overall, the number of votes cast in the Presidential race…
Election Post-Mortem, Part I
Some early thoughts on this election … — That was the easy part. But if Obama runs this country with the same amount of competence that he ran his campaign, we are headed for 1,000 years of peace and prosperity. — Like everyone else’s, my jaw like near to fell off my face when Pennsylvania…
The Unholy Three at The Andy Warhol Museum (Oct. 31)
On a night when a lip-syncing drag queen did backflips behind the plate-glass windows of Downtown’s Space Gallery (at a reception for the new photography show Then & Now) and half-naked boys dressed as winged, fanged angel/devils lined up on Liberty for a Halloween party next door at Pegasus, you’d expect a movie from 1930…
Radio Golf at the Public Theatre
As usual with August Wilson, his Radio Golf offers more than can be adequately digested in a formal review, let alone a humble blog entry. The play, the 1990s piece of Wilson’s monumental 20th Century Cycle, depicts ambitious Harmond Wilks’ attempt to become the first black mayor of Pittsburgh. (The show runs through Sat., Nov.…
Life on Mars: Detect Like It’s 1973
I have made a thousand promises that I will not do that tedious thing of comparing ABC’s Americanized version of Life on Mars to its earlier British counterpart that ran last year on BBC America. Let’s see how well I do. Life on Mars is one of those new hybrid shows that trades on a…
Pet Cause
In her seven months working as a volunteer at Tiger Ranch cat sanctuary, Deb Urmann followed pretty much the same routine every Saturday. She’d get to the Tarentum facility in the early morning, check the food and water bowls. She’d empty the litter boxes. Then she’d make the rounds, picking up corpses. Urmann says she’d…
East Liberty: Neighbors want say in new outreach housing program
Neighbors say they don’t have a problem with the concept of affordable housing for homeless fathers; they just don’t want to be left out of the process.
Elections: Activists Get What They Want, Still Aren’t Satisfied
Allegheny County Election officials test electronic voting machines, but activists say they still haven’t gone far enough.
Neighborhoods: New CNNC leadership making waves
When a coalition of new candidates swept the Central Northside Neighborhood Council’s board of directors’ elections in May, some residents worried that the community group was going to lose its focus on preserving diversity and affordable housing (See “Challengers sweep elections to North Side community group,” City Paper May 14). It turns out the elections…
Police: Residents want consent-decree procedures made law
Community activists are reviving an effort to make laws out of police-accountability procedures once forced on the city by a 1997 federal agreement. “What we’re looking to do is [make] the work of 1997 not be in vain,” said Tim Stevens of the Black Political Empowerment Project, speaking at an Oct. 21 Pittsburgh City Council…
El Eco de la Sombra was a feast for the senses.
I am rocking softly in a dream boat. I am visiting a dwarf in a little house.
Open Stage opens its season with the wacky farce Irma Vep.
The play’s seven roles must be played by just two actors, neither of whom is ever offstage for more than a couple of lines of dialogue.
The road to City Theatre’s Long Story Short began with a pop band.
“It sounds a little Broadway,” says Milburn in a stage whisper.
We camp out with Chicks With Dicks: Bad Girls on Bikes Doing Bad Things.
“Nipple twist. What does that sound like?”
Inbal Pinto’s journey to the center of a snowglobe.
The costume design also helped keep the many tiny Styrofoam balls out of the mouths, ears and noses of the dancers.
![A dance take on illustrator Edward Gorey’s work, and a dance contest, highlight Attack Theatre’s new [Insert Clever and Thought Provoking Title Here].](https://i0.wp.com/www.pghcitypaper.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/44_dance.webp.webp?resize=400%2C300&ssl=1)
A dance take on illustrator Edward Gorey’s work, and a dance contest, highlight Attack Theatre’s new [Insert Clever and Thought Provoking Title Here].
The work also includes: a floating body; a performer in a bear costume; an alternative version of a circus knife-throwing act, set to polka music; and an ax-murdering puppet show.
Passport Café
A confident kitchen brings together local ingredients with global influences
Zack and Miri Make a Porno
Desperate for cash, a couple of platonic slacker roommates — Zack (Seth Rogen) and Miri (Elizabeth Banks) — hit upon a sure-fire plan: They’ll produce and star in a porno. This latest cheerfully vulgar comedy from Kevin Smith — set and filmed in Pittsburgh — doesn’t aim very high and is occasionally uneven, but it…
Pride and Glory
Film-goers will likely be tipped off to the forthcoming mediocrity by the film’s cheesy, meaningless title: Pride and Glory. Director Gavin O’Connor co-penned this drama with Joe Carnahan (Smokin’ Aces) and they must have had a blast seeing who could toss in the most cop-film clichés about two generations of Irish-American cops confronting a nasty…
Pittsburgh n’@
Dispatches from the blogosphere.
This Just In: October 30 – November 6
Highlights from the local TV news: WTAE gets green, recycles story.
At its best, the Festival of Lights helps us see architecture differently.
Its real success is not in simply making architecture look different, but in making us look at architecture differently.
The Heiress
The Heiress is a textbook example of how intelligent, talented playwrights can play an audience like a keyboardist plays an organ.
Diane’s Heart Dries Out Still More
Lichelle Sade is nicely poised as the title character, whose world and self-image are turned inside-out by a case of workplace sexual harassment right out of Les Liaisons Dangereuses.
Plastered Bastards release Evil Will Always Triumph Because Good Is Dumb
With tracks like “Christians to the Lions,” the Bastards prove more topical and political than at first glance.
Jenn Gooch offers intense lyrics and plucky banjo on Gift Horse
“In a kosher deli with a heavy belly / I saw a picture of Ariel Sharon being buried / and I thought of the prison fire that took Dad away.”
Ex-Misfit Michale Graves releases new album on Eric Corbin’s Screaming Crow label
Backed by spare acoustic strums, the disc is a showcase for Graves’ fluid, dramatic vocals.
Percussive avant-rockers Skeletons rattle their bones at Garfield Artworks
“Why would I want to know … these things the children of rich men know?”
Ted Leo and The Pharmacists bring polemics and pop hooks to Diesel
“Sometimes nothing feels as right — to either hear or sing — as a good ole preachy ‘Us and Them’ kind of song.”
A locally launched T-shirt outfit catches on.
“We thought, ‘We should get into this, let’s make shirts we would want to wear.'”
Brighton Hot Dog Shoppe
The dog and chili harmonize like Simon and Garfunkel, but without all that extraneous parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme.
Branding Strategy
It’d be easy, and fun, to spend this space mocking Ashley Todd, the delusional young woman who made up a laughable story about being accosted — and branded — by an Obama-backing mugger in Bloomfield last week. But you know how it is with us liberals: We’re always coddling criminals. So when Todd faces charges…
Anti-Flag hosts Nov. 9 benefit concert for the Pittsburgh Food Bank
“It’ll be nice to have a little, tangible victory, and some solace in a world that seems quite arduous.”
Savage Love
My boyfriend recently moved in with me — the first straight guy I’ve ever shared an apartment with. I’m very clean and take great pride in my apartment. However, since he moved in, I’ve tried to be mindful of the fact that there will be certain things I’ll need to adjust to. Still, I think…
Mapping Out A Crisis
Pittsburgh, you may have heard, has a scary amount of debt. How scary? The city of Vallejo, Calif. went bankrupt in May — and local economics guru Chris Briem says, “We’re in a far worse situation than Vallejo is.” A big part of the problem is the city’s pension fund. The city should have about…
