Music producer and engineer Emmai Alaquiva celebrates Emmy nomination
Alaquiva and Ya Momz House Studios are pairing up to celebrate the nomination with KDKA’s 2007 Emmy nominee, John Cater.
A documentary shot in Chile about school — and student protests — highlights the next Film Kitchen.
Things heat up when, by complete coincidence, young people mobilize nationally for the biggest student protest in Chilean history.
Icarus Witch releases Songs for the Lost
Much triumph and righteousness await ye with Icarus Witch.
Balls of Fury
Rather than risk Christopher Walken stealing the film, Balls just gives it to him — and he runs deliciously amok. (Capsule review)
Ha-Yang Kim and Marco Cappelli to perform at Radical Riffs series
Doesn’t sound much like Yo-Yo Ma, does it?
Rocket Science
Rocket Science has great moments that feel both real and off-kilter — a dreadful school counselor, a drunken bike ride and an unattainable slice of pizza. (Capsule review)
School of Hard Knocks
Greg Schaffer and his wife Cassi Schaffer-McNalley say they’ve loved living in Oakland for its culture and vibrancy, but they want to sell the Dawson Street home they’ve owned for 10 years. Over the years, conflicts with student renters have grown into what feels like war, and the violence on the night of Aug. 5…
3:10 to Yuma
James Mangold’s remake of the 1957 drama hews close to its old-school Western roots; there’s a good guy, a bad guy, a clear moral purpose, and plenty of shoot-’em-ups. (Capsule review)
Moving forward
It will be up to a Western Pennsylvania jury to decide whether the written works of a 55-year-old Donora woman are obscene. On Aug. 30, Judge Joy Flowers Conti declined to dismiss obscenity charges against Karen Fletcher, who formerly operated a text-only Web site. Fletcher is accused of charging 29 customers roughly $10 each for…
Your Mommy Kills Animals
PETA comes off pretty ugly here, as does that other perennial cute-sad-puppy fund-raiser, the Humane Society of the United States. (Capsule review)
The Carnegie explores Brazilian culture via a video about ants in the jungle.
That an ant crawling in dirt might be shown to be so beautiful is a testament to the powers of Neuenschwander and her collaborator, filmmaker Cao Guimaraes, and to the mysteries of Brazil itself.
New School
In mid-July, Tiondra Suiter and Christina Seaton stood in a narrow Duquesne High School hallway, telling a reporter they staunchly opposed leaving the school district they’d attended all their lives and transferring to a district where they felt unwanted. But in late August, after just three days at East Allegheny High School, their sentiments have…
The Chelsea Grille
With its tender crust and mix of astringent and creamy sauces, the fritto baguette was simultaneously simple and decadent.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette‘s Rob Rogers discusses Bush Leaguers, a new show of political cartoons.
Pointing to a work by Ann Telnaes — which features President Bush sitting on a toilet situated over the North Pole — Rogers says, a bit wistfully, “Here’s what you can get away with when you don’t have an editor.”
Buccaneers Seek Booty
“We are a new fetish company in the Pittsburgh area, Fetish Fantasy Island. We are looking for people that [sic] would like to participate in our up coming [sic] fetish event …” Such a spam-ish casting call is standard fare on the Internet, but this was no ordinary spam: It was directed at about 100…
Street Wise:
It’s late August, 92 degrees and muggy — the dog days of summer. Not that Hobo seems particularly enthused about it: The dog won’t venture past the doorstep onto the sizzling alley. Instead, he sticks close to the side of Eric Graf, owner of Blackberry Studios and principal architect of the local rock supergroup, The…
Pittsburgh N’@
From: http://pittsburgh.metblogs.com/ archives/2007/08/some_tips_on_ how_to_destroy_a.phtml Some Tips on How to Destroy a City One bunch of people who are likely to want to come to Pittsburgh are urban planners. This isn’t a complement; Pittsburgh is almost a lab experiment in poor government and bad urban design and it’s kind of famous for it. So, it may…
The Last Night of Ballyhoo
When a young Jewish woman mocks Pesach (Passover), the reaction should provide an ache, not mere embarrassment.
Harsh Medicine
Even in a hospital, there’s a place for smoke-filled rooms.
Zombi releases vinyl around the world
The duo has the most current releases available on vinyl of any Pittsburgh group.
Grisha Coleman’s echo::system — The Desert wields art and science to create a parallel world you can walk into.
“It’s a desert with treadmills in it,” says Coleman. “They’re going on a walkabout but they don’t know how to do it anymore.”
Savage Love
My friends and I were debating a troubling incident over drinks and figured you would be the best person to ask: What should you do when, while looking for a toilet, you accidentally walk into the bedroom of someone you know, but don’t know well, and discover a boy half her age tied to her…
Bridging the culture gap is the goal of Outside Inn, a world-premiere play to be performed in English — and then in German.
Bruckmeier says it will help audiences “think about what they really know, what they need to know, and what they have to discuss.”
(Pre-)Season’s Greetings
Sit down, because I wouldn’t want anybody to faint in the face of the innovative notion of … writing an NFL playoff-predictions column. Here’s who I think will be vying for the right to bookend Bruce Springsteen’s halftime performance in Glendale, Ariz., this February. Whereas others predict outcomes based on prior-year success and free-agent acquisitions,…
Comedian Louis CK reflects on life after Lucky Louie.
“Either you’re miserable because you don’t have the candy you want, or you’re miserable because you ate the candy.”
Farmers’ Market
I greenly ventured into the realm of sustainable agriculture thinking I was Alice Waters — when, clearly, I’m the donut-box grandmother in Sixteen Candles.
Letters to the Editor: Sept 5 – 12
Feedback from our readers
A Conversation with Adam Gorzelsky and Katie Wilson
Between them, University of Pittsburgh graduates Adam Gorzelsky, 21, and Katie Wilson, 22, endured seven years of renting from tin-eared landlords while living off-campus. The couple channeled their rage into creating a Web site that allows tenants to grade their landlords. The site, www.LandorSlum.com, went live in June; the couple plans to attract more traffic…
This Just In
Highlights from the local TV news.
University of Pittsburgh professor Lynne Conner examines the history of local theater in Pittsburgh in Stages.
Conner notes criticism of Pittsburgh audiences as too provincial, too Presbyterian, too … Pittsburgh. And she seeks to dispel that critique whenever possible.
No End in Sight
Charles Ferguson’s documentary about the U.S. occupation of Iraq is a cogent, thoughtful work that should elicit gasps of outrage from partisans of all stripes.
The Progressive Library Skillshare explores how librarians can promote social justice.
“There’s no subject heading for ‘transgender'” in the Library of Congress classification system.”
The 11th Hour
Interviews with dozens of scientists, activists and thinkers comprise the core of Nadia Conners and Leila Conners Petersen’s film about ecological collapse, which is much more ambitious than Al Gore’s hit wake-up call.
City of Asylum’s jazz-poetry concert to feature the World Saxophone Quartet
“Musicians were in control of every aspect of their performance. You had to be a one-man production crew during that period.”
Raw Tactics of the Subversive Body
SubRosa’s “Vulva De/Re Constructa” wittily deconstructs the sales language and Freudian imagery in the growing field of cosmetic labial surgery; though hindered by sketchy production values, it’s as whip-smart as it is gleefully graphic.
