Keller Williams
Intentional or not, Keller Williams’ DVD, Sight, doesn’t just offer his fans a handy memento for them to make do with until the one-man jam band plays in town again — it’s actually something of an advertisement for Mr. Small’s Funhouse and Theatre. Filmed at the Pittsburgh concert venue, the sight of its façade at…
Comrad
“Watching the Sex Pistols’ infamous Manchester gig in 1976,” I’m tempted to say in reference to the sophomore effort produced by the Pittsburgh band currently known as Comrad, “Pete Shelley can’t have known that the band he’d soon lead from obscurity — the Buzzcocks — would find itself so vital a force in a…
Odawas
Listen for it: that tingling sensation you feel when a song hacks into your brainwaves and begins reprogramming thoughts. Odawas would be a good name for this special feeling, but it better suits a band that specializes in this feeling. Inspired by a vision quest worthy of its tribal namesake, Odawas conjures the musical…
League of Our Own
The national convention of The League of Pissed Off Voters “represents finally making the connection between Pittsburgh’s young progressive movement and this national young progressive movement that’s been going on,” says local League organizer Khari Mosley. The convention, titled “Smackdown 2005,” and set for the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Law…
Anti-Recruitment Groups Up Ante
Pittsburgh Organizing Group is about to increase its pressure on local military recruiters. POG, co-sponsor of recent anti-war demonstrations, has for months been picketing local recruitment offices and handing counter-recruitment literature to local high school students (see City Paper main feature, “Beyond the Call of Duty,” June 29). Now POG plans a Sat., Aug.…
Front and Center
Jim Kleissler is used to protesting in the forestlands of central Pennsylvania. But as incoming head of the Thomas Merton Center — the organization at the head of the local anti-war movement — the causes he supports are about to get a bit more attention. Kleissler, 33, spent 10 years in Clarion, Pa., as…
Activists Demand: Spare the Rod, Spoil the Bass
“Save the whales! Hug a tree! I eat meat, I eat meat, I eat meat! Chipped ham especially!” yelled a mulleted gentlemen toward the dozen or so activists gathered in Saturday’s blazing heat outside the Mellon Arena, where the Citgo Bassmaster Classic weigh-in was taking place. The activists, members of Voices for…
War and Remembrance: Still Nuclear, After 60 Years
Saturday marks 60 years since the United States dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima; the bombing of Nagasaki followed three days later. While not an anniversary that many people want to remember, local peace-activist Vince Eirene says events like the war in Iraq make the day too important to forget. Especially with the Department…
Yes
The man and woman who have a semi-extra-marital affair — she’s married, he’s not — in Sally Potter’s Yes go only by the monikers She and He in the movie’s credits, and nobody in the film calls them by name. This means (of course) that they represent more than just the identities on…
Oishii Bento
Location: 119 Oakland Ave., Oakland. 412-687-3335 Hours: Mon.-Sat. 11 a.m.-8:30 p.m. Prices: Bento: $6-7; bowls: $5.50-7; sushi: $4-8 Fare: Simple Japanese with some Korean Atmosphere: Takeout with Feng Shui Liquor: None Ah, the fleeting pleasures of summer! The slower pace, the longer light, the ability to get a table in Oakland without jostling with hordes…
Tell Them Who You Are
Tell Them Who You Are, Mark Wexler’s loose-limbed documentary about his father, the famed cinematographer Haskell Wexler, is equal parts homage and therapy. For Haskell and the 40-something Mark, the only child of Haskell’s second failed marriage, have shared a life-long bristly relationship. So Mark, a photojournalist and journeyman filmmaker, sets out to…
Single-Minded Activists
So after three years of calling Pittsburgh the worst city in the country for singles, Forbes magazine now says we rank 29th out of 40. Predictably, a chorus of self-congratulation went up from the usual suspects — the Post-Gazette editorial page and advocates for “young people” — for whom finishing 29th has apparently been a…
HAPPY ENDINGS
n Don Roos’ teeny-tiny Los Angeles, a dozen-plus characters intersect — nearly each involved in a self-serving scheme that employs deception at the expense of another player. Among the ensemble cast are abortion counselor Lisa Kudrow (had secret baby); wild child Maggie Gyllenhaal, who doesn’t really love the sadly sweet Tom Arnold; blackmailer and videographer…
The Crass-y Knoll
When it comes to political consulting, I’m no James Carville. I’m not bald, I’m not married to a sour-pussed Republican, I don’t have a Cajun accent, I don’t stammer, and I’ve never run a campaign. But as an amateur wanna-be political consultant I’ve got some advice for Gov. Ed Rendell: Dump Lt. Gov. Catherine…
MUST LOVE DOGS
If your personal ad reads “Must Love Formulaic Romantic Comedies,” you’ll find your heart’s desire in Gary David Goldberg’s stab at the quite familiar. His film, based on Claire Cook’s novel, is a checklist of genre conventions: bad blind dates, pushy family, sassy gay pals, singletons moping about in cute pajamas, Sheryl Crow songs, ur-romanctic…
Paper Trail
Arlan Hess couldn’t have planned it better. In March 2004, at its debut at the Associated Writing Programs conference in Chicago, the literary journal she helped found attracted not only eyes, but sales. In a few days, the first issue of Paper Street Press sold more than 100 copies. Not bad for a…
SHORTCUT TO NIRVANA
Every 12 years, tens of millions Hindus convene in Allahabad, India, for Kumbh Mela, a religious festival believed to be hyper-charged spiritually, because of fortuitous astral alignments and the proximity to the sacred Ganges River. Maurizio Benazzo and Nick Day’s rough but still engaging documentary captures just fragments of the mega-event, choosing to view the…
My question is about the Louis L. Manderino library at California University of Pennsylvania. Who was Louis L. Manderino?
During the 1970s, Louis Manderino offered living proof that America really was the land of opportunity: The son of Italian immigrants who grew up in the tiny Mon Valley town of Monessen, Manderino became the youngest state Supreme Court justice in Pennsylvania history, and then got caught up in a nasty, public divorce.…
SKY HIGH
Mike Mitchell’s film is an amusing riff on the familiar jocks-vs.-nerds teen comedy. Because Sky High is strictly for the progeny of superheroes, the social lines break down rough: Kids with cool powers get put on the fast-track to hero, while the lame ones (one kid can make his shirt glow) and weirdoes (ability to…
Rough Ridahs
It’s a pretty healthy scene inside Gene’s Last Chance in the Strip during its Monday version of happy hour. Native citi-yinz sit around Gene’s L-shaped bar content with their classic rock, the Pirates game on the TVs above their heads. Gene’s waitresses and barmaids are as American as apple pie, dirty blondes in dirty aprons,…
The Beat That My Heart Skipped
The conflicted young protagonist of Jacques Audiard’s The Beat That My Heart Skipped uses his fingers in two dramatically different ways. When he extends them, he plays the piano rather well. But when he rolls them into a ball, they become fists of enforcement for his graying father, who owns some Paris commercial…
A Conversation with Jack Hirschfield
Native West Ender Jack Hirschfield’s mind has long gone to the birds. The now-retired roofer has been breeding and training racing pigeons in his backyard, also known as “Hilltop Lofts,” for over 54 years. He is currently preparing his young birds for their racing season, which will start on Aug. 20. …
