Negative interest rates? Money backed by water? Charles Eisenstein wants to reform our money system.
Money, or at least the desire for it, is at the root of our biggest problems, from injustice and economic inequality to environmental destruction. The need for money always seems to make us do the wrong thing: hoard wealth, strip the land. But it needn’t be so. In his 2011 book Sacred Economics (Evolver Editions),…
Lynn Cullen Live 02/21/12
Video Archive No Susan today!; things we don’t see, we don’t fear; relative size: the earth to the universe, bacteria to our bodies, etc…; cats host mind-control parasites; 50% of the French have this parasite with or without cats; how little we know about what makes us do things / want things; viruses need to…
Call for Film Scripts Generates Surprises
A local screenwriting group headed by theatrical director, writer and actor Bob Scott was curious to find out just how many talented writers we have in the Burgh. “Hollywood’s best-kept secret” has been out for a while: Our city’s varied topography, talent pool and appealing tax credits continue to attract filmmakers. In the past two…
Lynn Cullen Live 02/20/12
Video Archive Unlike Romney, Santorum believes what he says; one debate left, who will Newt go after?; Santorum doesn’t approve of public education; in NYC, wealthy Americans send their kids to private schools / wealthy foreigners there send their kids to public schools; public schools have greater ethnic & economic diversity – – more like…
Road Rage: Dems and Republicans square off over transportation
In the mounting fight over funding transportation in the state, Republicans and Democrats each fired shots today. First, Gov. Tom Corbett – in Pittsburgh to tour Calgon Carbon Corporation — told reporters that Democratic lawmakers were “ballsy” for criticizing him on not acting yet on a transportation funding solution, the Tribune-Review reported. Noting that Democrats…
One Pittsburgh puts out the welcome mat for Corbett
Outside the Duquesne Club today, members of One Pittsburgh protested proposed state budget cuts to education and health services by laying out a human “red carpet” outside the club, where Gov. Tom Corbett was said to be attending a business luncheon. The protesters’ chants varied from “Hey Gov, where’s the love? Give some dime to…
Win tickets to see Dethlehem tomorrow (Saturday)
Win two tickets to tomorrow’s Dethlehem show at Stage AE.
Lynn Cullen Live 02/17/12
Video Archive Guest: Dr. Deborah Gilboa; Chuckles revisited; child-rearing advice by Dr. Gilboa; humans wired to ignore their own smell in favor of recognizing their surroundings, danger, etc…; easier to reach children through media; if mom isn’t healthy, no one is; children not special, but unique; honesty is the best policy; raise kids to be…
Public Announces New Season
Artistic director Ted Pappas is calling the Pittsburgh Public Theater’s next season “Made in America,” with a focus on homegrown work about domestic themes. Of special note are three newer plays, two of them contemporary-set. Perhaps chief among these is playwright Bruce Norris’ Clybourne Park, which won the 2011 Pulitzer for drama. Provocatively, it looks…
Lynn Cullen Live 02/16/12
Video Archive Guest: Tom Sokolowski; barnacles: largest penis to body ratio in the animal kingdom; a letter from Rick to Lynn; is your cat making you crazy?; saltpeter pills; $16 women during Vietnam; letter writing; it’s a man’s world; French gov’t pays for vaginal tightening exercises after a woman gives birth; Lovings vs. Virginia. Audio…
City council approves partial settlement in Miles case
City Council unanimously approved a $75,000 partial settlement Wednesday between the City of Pittsburgh and Jordan Miles, freeing the city of “direct liability” in the Homewood resident’s civil suit stemming from his high-profile beating and arrest at the hands of three city police officers two years ago. The settlement, which doesn’t impact the complaints against…
Got that Iron City Sound (includes $$$ content)
Apply to get a $5,000 brand “ambassadorship” with Iron City.
Dean Cercone and Ivory Weeds look in from the outside
DEAN CERCONE AND IVORY WEEDS with RIVKA, THE BEAGLE BROTHERS. 9 p.m. Sat., Feb. 18. Thunderbird Café 4023 Butler St., Lawrenceville. $5. 412-682-0177 or thunderbirdcafe.net Two summers ago, Dean Cercone did something that would have been unimaginable 10 years earlier. He stood onstage with the man known as Jandek. An enigma, if not a legend,…
The Come Up tours with Mac Miller, gets Billboard attention
The Come Up’s Vinny Radio and Franchise indulge in a lifestyle that has influenced several generations of musical geniuses. They call it “smipsy”: a combination of being smoked out and tipsy — a condition that’s further defined in their new single of the same name. Franchise, 24, and Vinny, 23, met while attending Woodland Hills…
CD Reviews
Before You Meet Me at Whisper Lake (Self-released) Before You is planted firmly within the contemporary pop-punk idiom, but hints at some interesting departures from the formula. This five-song EP showcases the band’s versatility (and guitar chops, with some allusions to Van Halen). Tunes about relationships and nostalgia and all the classic pop-punk stuff. Good…
Papaya
Papaya 210 McHolme Drive Robinson 412-494-3366 Hours: Mon.-Fri. 11 a.m.-10 p.m.; Sat.-Sun. 12 noon-10 p.m. Prices: Appetizers, soups and salads $4-9; entrees $11-20 Liquor: Full bar The Pointe at North Fayette is a dizzying jumble of retailers, mostly of the national-chain persuasion. But when we heard about a local Thai place holding its own among…
Critics’ Picks: February 16 – 21
[CLASSICAL] + THU., FEB. 16 Occasionally we see rock shows taking place at big concert halls, but it’s a lot less common to see the inverse: classical music played in bars. But tonight, the provocateurs of Chatham Baroque do just that, presenting a preview of their next program, Lawes of Attraction, at Olive or Twist.…
Lynn Cullen Live 02/15/12
Video Archive Guest: Chris Potter; new CP out today, info on Corbett’s budget cuts; current attacks on women; Catholic Church should register as a Republican PAC; Romney Care is the precursor to Obama Care; our healthcare system leads people to die in their homes, or be homeless; the Pledge of Allegiance was changed in the…
Missing the Bus: Corbett saying, doing little to handle state’s mass-transit crisis
Lawmakers and transportation advocates were patiently waiting for Gov. Tom Corbett’s Feb. 7 budget address to see if the governor would propose a funding solution for Pennsylvania’s grossly under-funded roads, bridges and mass-transit systems. They’re still waiting. Corbett made little mention of transportation in his address where he outlined a $27.14 billion spending proposal. While…
Short List: February 16 – 21
Thu., Feb. 16 — Words Sorry, America — no post-racial politics for you. At least not yet. In fact, according to Desmond King, a professor of American government at the U.K.’s Nuffield College (an affiliate of Oxford University), race continues to define American politics. King wrote the book Separate and Unequal: African Americans and…
Horsing Around With Jobs: Corbett raids racing fund for AG programs
Among the potential losers in Gov. Tom Corbett’s proposed budget: the horses that Pennsylvania casinos rode in on. Corbett’s budget proposes raiding Pennsylvania’s Race Horse Development Fund for $72 million a year over the next three years, using the money to offset cuts in other agricultural programs. That move has upset and confused those who depend…
Dutch arts fest opens with U.S. premiere of a sexually charged dance work
DANCE WORKS ROTTERDAM/ANDRÉ GINGRAS performs Anatomica 8 p.m. Sat., Feb. 18. Byham Theater 101 Sixth St. Downtown. $14-45. 412-456-6666 or www.trustarts.org A Dutch invasion has arrived in town in the form of the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust’s three-month Distinctively Dutch Festival. The latest in the Trust’s series of cultural festivals that included 2004’s Quebec festival and…
Tough Love? Corbett cuts higher ed, chastises schools for tuition hikes
For students at the University of Pittsburgh and other state-supported schools, Gov. Tom Corbett’s proposed budget is bad enough: It cuts millions from higher education from an already lean state appropriation. But to add insult to injury, Corbett used his Feb. 7 budget address to argue he was doing students a favor. Overall, Corbett’s budget…
Playwright Young Jean Lee takes to the stage — fronting a rock band — in We’re Gonna Die
Young Jean Lee and band perform WE’RE GONNA DIE 8 p.m. Fri., Feb. 17. The Andy Warhol Museum 117 Sandusky St. North Side. $20-25. 412-237-8300 or warhol.org “I’ve hated performing all my life,” says Young Jean Lee. Lee, after all, is not an actor but a nationally acclaimed experimental playwright. She never even took the…
Seeing Pink: Planned Parenthood fracas brings out questions about Komen
Last week, New York Times columnist Ross Douthat wrote that “the fight against breast cancer,” as waged by groups like Susan G. Komen for Cure, “is unifying and completely uncontroversial.” Douthat contrasted Komen with Planned Parenthood, the group that the foundation had notoriously defunded days earlier. Unlike the abortion services Planned Parenthood provides, Douthat argued,…
The Gammage Project
THE GAMMAGE PROJECT continues through Sun., Feb 19 Henry Heymann Theatre Oakland 412-624-PLAY or play.pitt.edu March 2-4 August Wilson Center Downtown website In 1995, five Pittsburgh-area white men brought about the death of a black man and, to this day, they’re all walking around free. It’s difficult to imagine, in a city as racist as…
Savage Love
I headed north last week to do Savage Love Live — a rapid-fire, slightly tipsy Q&A session — at the University of Alaska Anchorage. All of the questions in this week’s column were submitted by UAA students and staffers. Should I go ahead and divorce my fantastic wife of 23 years now because gay marriage…
Elder Hostages
ELDER HOSTAGES continues through Feb. 26. Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre 937 Liberty Ave., Downtown. 412-377-7803 or pghplaywrights.com. In theater, calling something “interesting” can be a kiss of death. Theater thrives on emotion, provocation, surprises, laughter and tears. No one but a milquetoast academic wants to see an interesting play. But when I say that Elder Hostages,…
Chartreuse a popular, if mysterious, option at local bars
There has always been an air of mystery around Chartreuse. “A lot of people ask what it is, or say they’ve seen it in their grandparents’ house,” says Salt of the Earth’s Summer Voelker, who lists it as one of her favorite spirits. “There are so many layers of flavor.” There are, in fact, more…
Hi-Hat Hattie
HI-HAT HATTIE continues through Sun., Feb. 19. New Horizon Theater at the Grey Box Theatre 3595 Butler St. Lawrenceville. 412-421-0773 or email Even without the occasional bio-augmentation of Larry Parr’s Hi-Hat Hattie, the life of Hattie McDaniel was truly amazing and dramatic. Best known to movie audiences as the first African American to win an…
Kiva Han coffeehouse closes
The vibe at South Craig Street’s Kiva Han has always been laid-back: It still has Halloween decorations up. But the weekend before the coffeehouse’s Feb. 19 closing, the mood was downright subdued. “The regulars are pretty devastated,” says Tyler Bryan, who’s worked as a barista for nearly five years. “People are asking, ‘Where else can…
Journey 2: The Mysterious Island
Journey 2: The Mysterious Island Directed by: Brad Peyton Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Josh Hutcherson, Vanessa Hudgens, Luis Guzman, Michael Caine In 3-D in select theaters Michael Caine flying around on a giant bee. I wish I could just write that over and over, because if there is nothing else to recommend Journey 2: The Mysterious…
Shame
For all of its hype and graphic sex — CAUTION: there’s really not that much of the latter — the well-made and often-interesting character study Shame is pretty routine. There are no new insights or emotions, and some choices do more to advance plot than character. It’s about sex addict Brandon (Michael Fassbender) and his…
Declaration of War
It can’t be an easy task to make a relatively upbeat movie — with some laughs, songs and verve-y camerawork — about a toddler with brain cancer. But Valérie Donzelli and Jérémie Elkaïm do — and the work is clearly informed by the real-life couple’s trial when their own child suffered a serious illness. They…
Safe House
It may not be true in life, but it sure is typical in spy thrillers: There’s inevitably a CIA within the CIA. Such an inter-agency spookhouse — those guys really can’t be trusted! — informs the heart of Daniel Espinosa’s action thriller. But those looking for a thoughtful parsing of such gray matter should look…
The Vow
A twentysomething Chicago artist named Paige (Rachel McAdams) is in a car accident, and develops partial amnesia: She can’t recall anything from the past couple of years — not her art, the man who claims to be her husband or why she stopped speaking to her family. Needless to say, the now-estranged hubby, Leo (Channing…
Premiere: “Downtown Sugar” by The Long Time Darlings
Premiere of The Long Time Darlings’ video “Downtown Sugar.”
Departed Actor Charges Exploitation in Gammage Play
Playwright Attilio Favorini intended the University of Pittsburgh Repertory Theatre production of The Gammage Project to address racial injustice in Pittsburgh by dramatizing a single wrenching episode from recent history. But a prominent local actor who quit the show a week before it opened claims that the play merely exploits the story of Jonny Gammage,…
