MR. 3000
Bernie Mac plays the archetypical obnoxious jock, a baseball slugger so selfish he retires amidst a pennant race after securing his coveted 3,000th hit. But he wheedles a comeback when a statistical revision strips him of three hits, jeopardizing his Hall of Fame chances. Packaged as a sports comedy, in the hands of director Charles…
We’ll Always Have Paris
The Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call recently reported that Pennsylvania’s own Senator Shoe Polish, Rick Santorum, passed up a chance to have Paris Hilton work in his office for her Fox TV show, The Simple Life 2. That’s too bad, really: Paris might have done something with Rick’s hair, and if there’s any place useless…
CRIMINAL
Greg Jacobs’ debut feature is a faithful Americanization of the 2001 Argentine hit Nueve Reinas. Seasoned con man Gaddis (John C. Reilly) intercepts young grifter Rodrigo (Diego Luna) and agrees to tutor him. And just in time, because Gaddis has gotten word of a hot big-money scam involving rare currency that could use Rodrigo’s assistance.…
Is it true that the dome of the Grand Concourse was painted black during World War II to keep it from being targeted by enemy bombers?
Ah, for the good old days, when we only needed to worry about easy-to-recognize threats like giant flying bombers. And when we had an industrial complex worth bombing. But yes: During the Second World War, Pittsburgh and its nearby mill towns were known as “Victory Valley”; it was the industrial heart of the…
WHAT THE BLEEP DO WE KNOW?
It’s a new-age ramble, quantum physics discussion, light sex comedy and rallying cry for personal growth, all in one. Filmmakers William Arntz, Betsy Chasse and Mark Vicente tackle who, what and why we are (or aren’t) once we get broken down into particles that may or may not be there. Such exploration is elucidated by…
City Paper Fall Guide 2004
Welcome to City Paper’s 2004 fall guide. In addition to Joshua Schriftman’s piece below on local off-beat museums and the people who run them, this issue also contains a encyclopedic guide to arts & entertainment events taking place in the area all season long. Click here to read All Hoff’s take on the season’s upcoming…
The Bill for Alexander
Andre and Alexander Scott, 9-year-old fraternal twins, look sharp in matching red polos, blue jean shorts and black Nikes. As I sit at the kitchen table with them, though, differences become obvious. Andre does his homework, pausing to converse with more poise than many college students. Alexander, who is autistic, checks my pockets, jingles…
Tangerine
With its full-length CD Songs for the Now and Others Forever, Pittsburgh-based guitar-shimmer band Tangerine has managed to take music designed for a very specific audience — chain-smoking Northern English heroin addicts — and make it palatable to a much broader demographic: American urban cowboys with stolen codeine patches strapped to their shoulders, fraternity brothers…
The Fiery Furnaces
Fiery Furnaces rumors which turn out to be true: Start Blueberry Boat at the exact moment that The Wizard of Oz clicks into Technicolor, and the album plays as a perfect-fit soundtrack. Take the first letter of every other line from every other song on Blueberry Boat and it maps out the cabbalistic number for…
End of the Century: The Story of the Ramones
Johnny Ramone purses his lips in twisted thoughtfulness, visibly, physically thinking, trying to come up with an answer. It’s the 21st century, yet John “Johnny Ramone” Cummings looks like it’s the Bowery circa ’74: fringed black bowl cut, T-shirt, black leather jacket doubtless nearby. After a few painful seconds brain-racking, he admits defeat:…
Wimbledon
If I were to tell you that Wimbledon is a sweet little movie, would you think I meant that as a compliment? It’s a romantic comedy set in the world of tennis, a sport where you have to sit there, silent and stone-faced through a long tense volley, waiting until the action ends…
Shaun of the Dead
For the first half-hour or so of Shaun of the Dead, the debut feature film by the creators of British cult TV series Spaced, 29-year-old slacker Shaun’s (Simon Pegg) biggest problem is that his girlfriend, the lovely Liz (Kate Ashfield), has had enough of him. Enough of his laddish habits, enough of the…
A Dirty Shame
The residents of Baltimore’s Harford Road — decent Americans who view sex with open distaste — are under creeping assault from libertine neighbors in John Waters’ cheerfully raunchy if somewhat pedestrian sex comedy, A Dirty Shame. Middle-aged frump Sylvia Stickles (Tracey Ullman) and her mom, Big Ethel (Suzanne Shephard), can barely get down…
FOLLOW THAT STORY
Local artists and musicians continue rallying to the cause of Steven Kurtz, the artist and former Carnegie Mellon University professor facing federal criminal charges after a bizarre series of events earlier this year. Under the auspices of the Patriot Act, Kurtz was detained and investigated by the FBI and the Joint Terrorism Task…
TIF Rules Could Blast Collier Crossing
A new Allegheny County Council rule could spell trouble for a proposed shopping center in Collier Township (See City Paper News Feature: “Onorato’s Crossing,” Sept. 1, www.pittsburghcitypaper.ws/archive.cfm?type=Main%20Feature&action=getComplete&ref=2809). Council on Sept. 7 voted 13-0 to adopt new guidelines for tax-increment financing subsidies, or TIFs. In TIFs, the county, school district and municipality borrow money to help…
Bush League
“Private Plans Costing More for Medicare.” They call them “Medicare Advantage plans,” but it appears that the advantages of this scheme to get more seniors into private coverage accrue largely to HMOs and other health-care companies. This year’s Medicare “reform” was supposed to save money, reports Robert Pear in the New York Times (Sept. 17);…
Black Bloc Blocked?
1. Neither presidential candidate is addressing anything of real concern to black voters. While there’s too much symmetry among the presidential candidates, says local pollster and political statistician Carlos Brossard, there are also clear differences that could have tremendous impact upon blacks in America. The George W. Bush administration is creating…
GOZU
At the least, this is not your papa-san’s yakuza movie, as a young Japanese gangster named Minami seeks the lost body of a revered colleague he might have accidentally killed. What begins as a Lynchian crime piece becomes a Cronenbergian detective thriller and then a genuine head trip. Director Takashi Miike (Ichi the Killer) is…
