Early on, it looks tight (UPDATED)
Early numbers coming in … too early to make any firm conclusions at 8:59 at night. (Only half or fewer of precincts are in for city council races.) But it’s NEVER too soon for me to start doubting myself. And so far, the numbers are stacking up in a surprising pattern. I’d suspected that if…
Environmentalists rally behind write-in candidate
In the Democratic race for Allegheny County Chief Executive, drilling for natural gas in the Marcellus Shale has become a bigger issue than either candidate probably wanted it to be. County Controller Mark Patrick Flaherty and former Allegheny County Council President Rich Fitzgerald have been fighting over which candidate is more in bed with the…
In council races, complaints of dirty tricks surface over weekend
In local politics, the final days before an election are when complaints of dirty tricks reach their apogee. And like clockwork, one candidate in city council district 9 is alleging “11th hour trickery.” According to the campaign of Lucille Prater-Holliday, someone is making a series of prank phone calls, using a campaign phone number. Matt…
Pittsburgh Cartoonist Subs on Bizarro
Local cartoonist Wayno takes over Dan Piraro’s acclaimed, nationally syndicated cartoon panel for one week starting tomorrow. The local cartoonist has been a frequent Bizarro gag-writer since April 2009. The two met in 2008, when New York-based Piraro visited the Pittsburgh chapter of Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art Club, a cartoonist’s forum. Since earlier this year, Wayno’s…
Fleeting Pages Update
I stopped by the pop-up bookstore again last night. It was just after 8 p.m. on a Friday, and still drawing browsers. Customers, too, apparently – I ran into local fiction writer Sherrie Flick, who was dropping off more copies of her novel Reconsidering Happiness because the first batch, which she delivered this past Wednesday,…
Suavity’s Showcase, and other show announcements
As the weekend begins, some disparate notes for you to keep in mind: — The experimental art rock outfit Suavity’s Mouthpiece — until recently unknown to me — announced today its second “Suavity’s Showcase” show, co-presented with Drusky Entertainment and a U.K. media outlet called Independent Music News. It’s taking place July 11 and features,…
Review: In Flagranti et al. at Istanbul
People say disco is dead; VIA begs to differ. Last Saturday’s show, held at what is becoming one of the best places for parties in the East End, Istanbul Grille on Butler Street, staged a lineup of artists that were all wildly different but whose sounds all held some tangential connection to the disco days.…
Friction between Hill and Penguins continues
Hill District leaders are calling a penalty on the Pittsburgh Penguins, accusing the team of failing to provide neighborhood residents first dibs on jobs created by a TGI Friday’s being built at Consol Energy Center. Giving Hill residents first crack at such jobs is required by the 2008 Community Benefits Agreement between residents, the Penguins…
Afternoon political mail call
Lots of political craziness circulating out there. On Marty Griffin’s KDKA morning talk show, county exec candidates Mark Patrick Flaherty and Rich Fitzgerald went toe-to-toe and talked about … their first girlfriends? I think? And the Flaherty campaign’s mailing address? I thought I might have hallucinated some of that, but no. Apparently, this has been…
Peduto defends campaign-finance law
City councilor Bill Peduto, who led the fight for council’s suddenly-controversial camapign-finance ordinance, has sent his colleagues a memo defending the measure. And to prove Peduto ally Bruce Kraus and others have been correctly interpreting the law — despite accusations to the contrary — the memo offers a useful historic perspective on the bill’s creation.…
Opening the gates: the first outdoor show at Stage AE
Last night, I went to the first EVER outdoor show at Stage AE, the clothing-company-sponsored venue on the North Side between PNC Park and Heinz Field. You might recall that the last time I was at the venue was for a show in the smaller “club” configuration of the venue, at which time all of…
A conversation with Jason Isbell
In this week’s paper, we ran a brief version of my interview last week with country-rock frontman Jason Isbell. Here’s a slightly longer version for you webheads. How’s Europe — is there a lot of interest in Southern rock in, say, Norway? There seems to be. A lot of people knew the words to…
Short List: Week of May 12 – 19
Cirque du Soleil visits Pittsburgh often, but its latest stop is the newest show the internationally famed troupe has staged here since 2005. Totem premiered last year, and in the U.S. just in March. If the Montreal-based Cirque is known for its extravaganzas of acrobatics, clowning, fantastical sets, lights and live music, Totem’s storyline sounds…
Winter in Wartime
For 14-year-old towhead Michiel, war is something between a child’s game and a reality. In January 1945, he lives in a village in the Netherlands, and he watches the war and the Nazi occupiers from his bedroom window, too young to join the resistance. One night, an RAF plane crash creates a spectacular fireball near…
Everything Must Go
From the outset, you should know: This is not your typical Will Ferrell comedy filled with pratfalls, but one of those darker, slower character pieces that the normally goofy actor occasionally indulges in.
Dan Rush’s dramedy is an adaptation of a Raymond Carver story: It starts in a dark place, but moves toward the light.…
Silk Screen Asian American Film Festival
Below are reviews for some of the second week’s films. ASHES. In New York City, a somewhat shiftless young Indian-American man nicknamed Ashes floats by as a small-time weed dealer. But, the ongoing care of his mentally ill brother requires more cash. So Ashes ratchets up his drug-dealing even as his brother begins to…
Thor
Kenneth Branagh’s Thor — there’s three words I never thought I’d write — is an entertaining two hours of 3-D live-action Marvel Comics hokum, with dynamic CGI, lots of noise, and occasional heart. It’s a classical story of an intergalactic father and two sons, all with mega-superhuman-cum-magical powers: Odin (Anthony Hopkins) is the sagacious monarch…
Something Borrowed, Jumping the Broom and Bridesmaids
Tis the season for comedies about weddings that go wrong before they go right
Kaleidoscope Café
Kaleidoscope’s intriguing menu refracts contemporary trends in sophisticated casual dining
On the Record With Jason Isbell
“I like to say it’s like — when you go home with somebody you don’t really know, and you wake up and you really have to take a shit. If it’s gonna come out, it’s gonna come out, but it’s way better to wait ’til you get home so you can leave the door open.”
Critics’ Picks
Local appearances by Zachary Cale, Mr. Dream, Ronnie Laws, Eclectic Laboratory Chamber Orchestra, and three experimental solo acts.
Daze of Future Past
Tomorrow’s Hill District preservation battle — today!
A Korean artist’s riff on Call of Duty asks us to reflect on warfare.
Where is the impersonal, unfailingly heroic aura assigned to soldiers in recruitment and propaganda videos?
Hairspray
Pittsburgh Musical Theater hits all the right notes in this frothy show.
Antony and Cleopatra
With director James Christy the real attractions are sex, violence, betrayal and more sex.
Shining City
Great direction and acting elevate a dramatically lax work.
The curtain rises on City Theater’s Louder Faster, Prime Stage’s Antigone and a new touring version of West Side Story.
The comedy gives legendary Pittsburgh-born playwright George S. Kaufman writer’s block and plops him back into his childhood home.
The newMoves Contemporary Dance Festival branches out.
A full-length work complements shorter new pieces by both local and visiting choreographers.
Turf War
City’s two women’s football teams to collide
Boca Chica takes Europe
Local indie-folk band winds up with two European “micro labels.”
Clinical Issues: Planned Parenthood, family planning advocates say bill would make abortions ‘inaccessible’
“Women without resources … will be driven to … unscrupulous facilities.”
Controversial abortion clinic bill clears house
The Republican-led House of Representatives Wednesday approved a controversial bill that would hold abortion clinics to the same requirements as surgical ambulatory facilities. And while supporters of the bill say its measures will protect women seeking the surgical procedure, women’s health advocates say it will be a “public health catastrophe.” After two days of quarreling…
Crossing a Thin Blue Line: Cyclist at heart of unusual Pittsburgh police dispute
“Usually officers will support their brother or sister officers no matter what happens. But this is a really unusual story.”
Hardcore scene vets form Killer of Sheep
“Anger isn’t even a real thing to me anymore; it’s just wasted emotion, something you feel because you don’t know how to figure shit out for yourself.”
Acrassicauda: From Baghdad to the ‘Burgh
The band from Heavy Metal in Baghdad comes to town
South Side’s Schwartz Market seeks community input for a greener future.
“Living-building” status, sustainable food are owner Elisa Beck’s goals.
On the Bubble
Exploring the mystery of sparkling wine
Savage Love
My life is not horrible. I’m pretty well-off. I go to college in Bellingham, Wash. — the weed is awesome, the weather is great, and there are lots of hot guys. But! I’m a homo. And I didn’t know how horrible my life was until I got here. It seems like every gay/queer person involved…
Explosive gas-drilling allegations in county executive campaign
After enduring more than a week’s worth of heavy attacks from Rich Fitzgerald over his proposal to partner with gas drillers, Mark Patrick Flaherty knocked the pins out from his rival, releasing an e-mail that paints Fitzgerald as the guy too close to gas drillers. In a press release sent this afternoon, Flaherty forwarded a…
Gary Shteyngart at City of Asylum
The author’s 2010 novel Super Sad True Love Story is set in a near-future where one of protagonist Lenny Abramoff’s distinguishing traits is that he still reads books. Everyone else, including his notably younger girlfriend, Eunice, pretty much just texts and watches TV. At last night’s reading and Q&A at City of Asylum’s tent on…
District 1 turning uglier
The campaign for City Council District 1 is getting uglier. One week before the May 17 primary election, candidate Vince Pallus is attacking City Councilor Darlene Harris in a campaign mailer accusing the incumbent of using her position for her own personal benefit. Titled “Greed Works for Darlene Harris,” the mailer — “Paid for by…
Political campaigning in council chambers? I’ve never seen the like
Jeff Koch’s political campaign took its ethics allegations against city councilor Bruce Kraus right into council chambers today — a move Kraus dismissed as a “stunt.” Tim Brinton, who is the campaign manager for Koch’s effort to replace Kraus in the May primary, presented council with a petition with 25 signatures, requesting a hearing on…
