Jesus Is Just All Right … and other media notes
So my Post-Gazette this Sunday came with a copy of the New Testament inside. And strangely enough, Jesus doesn’t sound like columnist Jack Kelly at all. Actually, the delivery didn’t come as any surprise. We’d been warned about it awhile back, and there were a handful of P-G readers who threatened to cancel their subscriptions.…
Sergeant Vollberg Speaks!
Yes, Virginia, there is a Sergeant William Vollberg. And while he’s too busy to show up at public hearings to investigate his conduct, he apparently DOES have time to write letters to the editor denouncing the ACLU. In case you missed it, yesterday’s Post-Gazette featured a letter from William Vollberg ridiculing the civil-liberties group. The…
Razing McCain
I think I lost my lest shred of respect for John McCain last night, and ironically, it came during one of the few passages of his speech that I agreed with. “If you find faults with our country, make it a better one,” McCain said. “If you’re disappointed with the mistakes of government, join its…
The Renegade Who Had It Made
Just hours before his new album is sent to the Internet, Gregg Gillis is at home: a two-room Wilkinsburg apartment crammed with the detritus of his life on the road as internationally acclaimed mashup artist Girl Talk. A worn couch dominates the living room, alongside a heap of brightly colored high-tops and two tagged, travel-worn…
Letters to the Editor: September 3 – 10
Feedback from our readers: Barking at Petland.
Acclaimed author Francisco Goldman visits for “An Incident of Human Rights.”
A leading presidential candidate, whom a source of Goldman’s reported seeing in the vicinity of Gerardi’s residence the night of the murder, skipped the final two debates and lost.
Baghead
In Mark and Jay Duplass’ offbeat comedy, four aspiring actors/screenwriters/directors — these young Los Angelenos just want to be in movies somehow — head for a remote cabin in the woods to dream up a film. An idea about four people just like themselves gets scuttled in favor of a scare-fest about a creepy stranger…
Bella Frutteto
Adjacent orchards are one of the attractions at this suburban Italian restaurant.
Traitor
Jeffrey Nachmanoff’s current-affairs thriller about Islamic jihadists intent on bombing Western targets doesn’t have the stylistic verve of a Bourne pic, a high-glam star nor a plot much deeper than a successful paperback page-tuner. But it’s decent genre fare that at least aims beyond stereotypes and viewers’ expectations. The always capable Don Cheadle portrays the…
Film Kitchen
It’s the 10th anniversary of local screening series.
A locally produced documentary about Tibet under Chinese rule questions some basic assumption.
The first thing you’ll wonder about Dancing in Amdo, local filmmaker Carl Cimini’s documentary about Tibet under Chinese rule, is, “How’d he score an interview with the Dalai Lama?” Answer: patience. And the effort highlighted the nuances and paradoxes of a political situation that’s much more complicated than people imagine. Dancing in Amdo, which premieres…
Una de Luna welds swank trip-pop to loud guitars
A combination of tight trip-hop grooves, sinuous melodies, pop hooks and arena-sized choruses.
After a long absence, Ennui returns with The Myth in Which We Live
“It’s not that I’m getting old / You get sundried.”
Local MCG Jazz label updates tradition on new releases by Bob Mintzer and Portinho Trio
A group like this shouldn’t wrap up a song so soon.
Meet comic and “multi-tasking pot smoker” Doug Benson.
“A lot of the kids didn’t even know who I was or that there was even going to be a comic at their prom.”
Technology: Tech contest offering big cash prizes for really big idea
For small tech companies, cash and public exposure of their products can sometimes be hard to come by. An ongoing contest sponsored by the Greater Oakland Keystone Innovation Zone (GO KIZ) is offering local tech-savvy innovators the chance to garner both. “There are a lot of small start-up technology companies in this city and a…
Carnegie Library launches homelessness resource Web page
The Carnegie Library has launched a housing and homelessness resource page on its Web site, timed to coincide with a “sleep-in” that advocates are holding in October to raise awareness and funds for those deprived of basic needs. The money collected will benefit Community Human Services — an organization that provides housing programs, street outreach…
Food Fight
Almost every weekend for the past four years, Souheil Obaid has been selling gyros to South Side bar-hoppers in front of his tiny Mediterranean Market, located on the 2000 block of East Carson Street. The late-night sales provide roughly half of his income; without them, he says, “I’d have to close down.” So when Pittsburgh…
Pittsburgh n’@
Dispatches from the blogosphere: Standing Pat.
Local punks Kim Phuc distill eclectic roots into new 7-inch record
Henry’s vocals and stage presence set the band apart from the rest of the class.
Pittsburgh legends Don Caballero return with Punkgasm
“Now wouldn’t be a good time to fuckin’ shit in our Easter basket, if you know what I mean.”
Twilight Market
Plans to bring a local-food market house back to the North Side
A new art exhibition looks at life after retail for abandoned big-box stores.
But the story underscores the power of big-box retailers to siphon the life from the center of town, and then leave with callous abruptness when a better opportunity arrives.
Signs of life — and even Internet! — in Fayette County
In an area where underground shows happen on a regular basis but often go unpublicized, Jeremy Barnhart hopes to add marketing savvy and technical expertise.
I was told that there was a wooden street located in Shadyside or Squirrel Hill. Is this true? And if so, what is the history behind it?
Writer Allan Jacobs included Roslyn Place in his 1993 book Great Streets — where it sits beside chapters on the Grand Canal of Venice and the Avenue des Champs-Elyseés in Paris.
Savage Love
I’m a 38-year-old straight male in a long-term relationship. We have two children. I am not sure what killed the intimacy of our relationship, but my spouse and I have been physically disconnected for years. This led to some sleazy adulterate behavior on my part. We recently discussed the topic at length (at which time…
A local author’s debut novel reimagines Tolstoy’s heroine in contemporary Queens.
This is an intelligent and compelling novel, despite being populated by hollow and stock-seeming denizens.
Jane Hyland’s scientific drawings and Life on Mars don’t look so far apart.
Why not reverse this paradigm shift and look at Hyland’s microscopic pen-and-ink’s as the fine 21st-century abstractions they are?
