RuPaul’s Drag Race: Alaska Watch
Pittsburgh’s own Alaska easily glides into the top-3 finale on RuPaul’s Drag Race
Climate Expert To Speak at Pitt
Scientist and blogger Joseph Romm begins new lecture series
Lynn Cullen Live 04/16/13
Video Archive Phone guest: Susan; Pgh may get a rainbow today; Boston marathon explosions; Congress preventing Obama administration from appointing head to ATF; you can’t prevent everything; feels like a domestic, anti-govt incident; same week as OKC, Columbine & Virginia Tech; Supreme Court hearing a case on patenting genes; new Pope backing Benedict’s crackdown on…
Stream This Ish: April 10 Issue
Stream tracks from the musicians featured in this week’s City Paper!
Lynn Cullen Live 04/15/13
Video Archive Guest: Tom Sokolowski; it’s the Ides of April; 10 reasons state lotteries ruin the economy; 7 deadly sins; sorrow was once a deadly sin; God’s problem with wrath & other sinful behavior as a jealous god; skeptics know more about the Bible / religion that believers; atheists & agnostics who still love the…
Natural-gas issue flaring up in mayoral race?
Now that I think of it, it’s sort of amazing this issue hasn’t come up in the mayoral race until now. But a lingering controversy has flared up — arr, arr — over natural-gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale. Yesterday, anti-drilling “fracktivists” started buzzing about a $1,000-a-head fundraiser for mayoral candidate Jack Wagner next week…
Tax Day Rally Monday
Several groups will hold a rally Monday to speak out against global military spending. The rally, called “Our Tax Day, Not Theirs,” will be from noon to 2 p.m., Monday, outside the Squirrel Hill Post Office at Darlington and Murray avenues. “As we file our taxes on April 15, half of every dollar spent in…
Pinburgh tournament this weekend attracts tourists — like this touring musician
Dave Hartly of Nightlands and The War on Drugs is in town … to play pinball.
Talking pinball with Dave Hartley of Nightlands and The War on Drugs
Hartley is in town this weekend — to play pinball, not music.
Lynn Cullen Live 04/12/13
Video Archive Downtown’s new meter parking system opens up more spaces; dolphins checking themselves out in the mirror; Rand Paul lectures Howard University students on their own heritage; why Repubs have more trouble with Asian Americans than Hispanics; tolerance becoming more important to Americans; Sandy now retired from list of Atlantic hurricane names; clerk at…
Rivers Casino workers renew union effort, deliver a petition and a cake
Employees of the Rivers Casino on the North Shore renewed an effort this morning to unionize every casino worker except security personnel and dealers.
Pitt Theater Legend Bows Before Retirement
Attilio “Buck” Favorini, a playwright and the founder of Pitt’s theater department, gives his farewell lecture tomorrow. Details in Program Notes.
Pitt Theater Legend Bows Before Retirement
“Buck” Favorini gives farewell lecture tomorrow
Final Weekend for “City of Asylum” Play
There are four more performances of this lively play about some of the persecuted writers who’ve benefited from a local arts and humanitarian group. More in Program Notes.
Pitt Rep’s City of Asylum
New play depicts persecuted writers sheltered here
Lynn Cullen Live 04/11/13
Video Archive Guest: Tom Sokolowski; Mamie Eisenhower’s hair & drinking problem?; The Wire compared to what’s happening in Pgh; multiple shootings in the past 24 hours; get your pill fix @ the Allegheny Co. Public Defenders Office; sharing RX drugs & peeking at people’s medicine cabinets; being scared of the city is no way to…
Corbett budget under fire in new TV ad
A new progressive group — with one of those names that sounds so harmless that it sort of creeps you out — is launching a TV ad targeting Gov. Tom Corbett’s budget priorities. The ad, “Shell Game,” blasts Corbett for presiding over education layoffs and cuts in public school spending, while extending tax breaks to…
CMU to preview new romantic-comedy film made by alums
CMU to preview new romantic-comedy film
Vigil tomorrow for Day of Action to Close Guantanamo
A vigil will be held tomorrow to call attention to a hunger strike at Guantanamo Bay prison and to call for the prison to be closed. The vigil will be held at 2:30 p.m. at the corner of Forbes and Bigelow in Oakland. It is being sponsored by the American Friends Service Committee Pennsylvania Program,…
Interview: Jasiri X
Jasiri X couldn’t have come up with a better title to describe his new album, Ascension. While at the core the album remains consistent with the path that he’s taken to this point, calling out and taking action against corruption in politics and society, Jasiri mixes in some of the raw elements of hip-hop that…
Savage Love
I’m a gay man who has been seeing a devout Christian gay guy. We have many of the same interests and respect each other’s feelings and beliefs. However, I am not that religious, and he is an Orthodox Christian. Some of his friends oppose gay marriage and think that being gay is immoral. Since I…
Lynn Cullen Live 04/10/13
Video Archive Guest: Chris Potter. Gun laws and background checks. Killer appeals death sentence stating “Prosecution made me look bad.” Drive by shooting of elephant in Mississippi. Elephant is ok. Marijuana growers in Northern Wisconsin caught. Toxicity of cigarettes, chemical added that makes them continue to burn. Cigarette butt littering, butts are not biodegradable and…
Short List: April 10 – 18
SPOTLIGHT: Thu., April 11 — Stage On July 10, 1941, half the inhabitants of the Nazi-occupied Polish town of Jedwabne were massacred by their neighbors. Most of the dead were burned alive in a barn, and all of them were Jews; the killers were Catholics. Jan Gross’s 2000 book about the atrocity, Neighbors, drew challenges…
Amplifiers ready a release recorded with Casey Crescenzo
AMPLIFIERS CD RELEASE with THROUGH THESE WALLS, DOOMSDAY INITIATIVE, RED HANDS, KID DURANGO. 5 p.m. Sat., April 13. Stage AE 400 North Shore Drive North Side. $10-12. All ages. 412-229-5483 or stageae.com Si Lewis is characteristically soft-spoken about how his band, Amplifiers, came to record its new album, Everything Obsolete, with Casey Crescenzo of The…
Ten artists tackle female bullying in Mean Girls
MEAN GIRLS continues through April 28. Space Gallery 812 Liberty Ave. Downtown. 412-325-7723 or spacepgh.org Local curator Jill Larson invited 10 women from around the country to create art about girl bullying. The resulting exhibition, Mean Girls, at Space Gallery, includes works in various media from painting and drawing to video and performance, all meant…
Critics’ Picks: April 10 – 16
[INDIE FOLK] + THU., APRIL 11 If ever there were a moment for Last Good Tooth to make a stand, it’s now: The upstate-New York-based quartet just released a new full-length, Not Without Work and Rest, and its trademarks — an Americana sound, shouts and fiddles — happen to be the currency of a lot…
Artie Lange survived himself — and he’s here to joke about it.
ARTIE LANGE 8 p.m. Sat. April 13. Byham Theater 101 Sixth St. Downtown. $42.50-62.50. 412-456-6666 or trustarts.org A lot has happened to comedian Artie Lange since he last performed here, in 2008. Then, he was co-host of the Howard Stern Radio Show, an actor and comedian whose nights and weekends were spent packing theaters. “I…
New Releases
Jasiri X Acension (Wandering Worx) While at the core, this album remains consistent with the path that Jasiri X has taken to this point — calling out, and taking action against, corruption in politics and society — Jasiri mixes in some of the raw elements of hip hop that have influenced his rap career. On…
Quantum Theatre’s Dream of Autumn
DREAM OF AUTUMN continues through April 28. Quantum Theatre at the former Park Schenley Restaurant 3955 Bigelow Blvd. Oakland. $18-48. 888-718-4253 or quantumtheatre.com There’s a cliché that one’s life passes before one’s eyes before death. That’s only the slimmest description of Quantum Theatre’s Dream of Autumn. The production is the world premiere of Sarah Cameron…
City Theatre’s Little Gem
LITTLE GEM continues through May 5. City Theatre 1300 Bingham St. South Side. $22-55. 412-431-2489 or citytheatrecompany.org Somewhere in the middle of Elaine Murphy’s Little Gem — now at City Theatre — I was startled to realize that, in a lifetime as a professional audience member, this was the first play I’d ever seen by…
Pitt Rep’s City of Asylum
CITY OF ASYLUM continues through Sun., April 14. University of Pittsburgh Repertory Theatre in the Charity Randall Theatre Stephen Foster Memorial Oakland. $12-25. 412-624-7529 or play.pitt.edu Alas, nothing is so taxingly certain as man’s inhumanity to man, and it’s difficult to get such tales to grab and hold the public’s attention. The University of Pittsburgh…
The August Wilson Center Dance Ensemble delves into tragedy with Paving the Road of Survival.
AUGUST WILSON CENTER DANCE ENSEMBLE performs Paving the Road of Survival 8 p.m. Fri., April 12, and 8 p.m. Sat., April 13. August Wilson Center 980 Liberty Ave. Downtown. $15-30. 412-456-6666 or trustarts.org The final program in the August Wilson Center’s series “Great Collaborations: The Alliance Between Blacks and Jews in the Twentieth Century” is…
42
42 Directed by: Brian Helgeland Starring: Chadwick Boseman, Harrison Ford Starts: Fri., April 12. Will someone please explain to me how racism works? How do you look a man in the face and tell him that he’s less than you? That he can’t do what he’s good at because he’d have to do it alongside…
JG’s Tarentum Station Grille
JG’s Tarentum Station Grille 101 Station Drive Tarentum. 724-226-3301 Hours: Mon.-Thu. 11 a.m.-9 p.m.; Fri. 11 a.m.-10 p.m.; Sat. 4-10 p.m. Prices: Soups, salads and appetizers $4-10; entrees $18-30 Liquor: Full bar It can be difficult to tease apart the appeal of food and atmosphere. Of course, we go to restaurants to eat, but also…
Trance
Trance is a glossy neo-noir from Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire) that so very badly wants to wrap you up in its spell. So much so, that like its greedy, conniving protagonists, it just doesn’t know when to stop, turning an entertaining whodunit into an exercise in watch-checking. The McGuffin is a valuable painting, stolen by…
Meet Pies: Planned South Side eatery trying out meat pie recipes on bar patrons
It was late at night when the heads at the packed Piper’s Pub on the South Side all turned to watch a tray of English meat pies being carried toward the front of the restaurant. “It’s pie time!” yelled one of the regulars, as a mob formed over them. The pies — intended to be…
Ginger & Rosa
This coming-of-age story from Sally Potter is set in early-1960s Britain, against the backdrop of nuclear-weapons proliferation. At home, 16-year-old Ginger (Elle Fanning) endures her squabbling parents: Dad (Alessandro Nivola) is a “free-thinker” (code, really, for selfish and neglectful) and mum (Christina Hendricks) is unhappily suspended between domesticity and desiring something more. Ginger finds distraction…
Law and Reorder Pittsburgh: The city’s police bureau will be a top priority for Pittsburgh’s next mayor
Beth Pittinger, the executive director of Pittsburgh’s Citizens Police Review Board, says she has one hope for this year’s mayoral election. “What I hope is that we get a new mayor who first and foremost demonstrates a political will to support the work of the board,” Pittinger says. “I think that sort of public endorsement…
My Brother the Devil
Writer-director Sally El Hosaini’s debut coming-of-age drama is set in the gritty London neighborhood of Hackney; the landscape is dominated by public housing and the streets teem with working-class immigrants and their often-restless offspring. Among them, two Arab brothers: Rashid (James Floyd), a low-level but charismatic hood, and his adoring, teen-age brother Mo (Fady Elsayed).…
Pittsburgh Craft Beer Week comes back for a second round
Just how popular is beer in Pittsburgh? When Commonwealth Press partnered with the Gateway Clipper fleet to offer a three-hour-long river cruise featuring an all-you-can-drink assortment of beer from more than a dozen craft breweries, tickets sold out in less than four minutes. And when the servers crashed because they were overloaded with ticket requests,…
The Place Beyond the Pines
Derek Cianfrance’s (Blue Valentine) drama about fathers and sons, and the choices that relationship inspires (or demands) is told in three interconnected tales. In the first, Ryan Gosling portrays an itinerant stunt motorcyclist who, after discovering he’s fathered a child, decides to stick around Schenectady, N.Y., and be a dad. Drawing support from a weirdo…
Pittsburgh prepares to launch bike-sharing program
In 2011, Mayor Luke Ravenstahl’s chief of staff, Yarone Zober, spent three days biking around Minneapolis with two of Pittsburgh’s strongest cycling advocates: Scott Bricker, executive director of the nonprofit BikePGH, and Steve Patchan, the city’s bicycle-pedestrian coordinator. The three men used bikes acquired through Minneapolis’s Nice Ride bike-share program, and after Zober’s return, city…
Upstream Color
I loved Shane Carruth’s previous film, the low-budget time-travel morality play Primer (2002), which defiantly teetered between logic and head-scratching because that tension was part of the experience. After nine years, Carruth delivers his second film, which is even more ambitious and more obtuse. I’m not kidding when I say it involves identity theft, strange…
Affront Office
I love baseball. And for the past 20-plus years, I have loved the Pirates. As a kid, I actually grew up as a fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers. But when I left home for college in the late 1980s — and then really left home, for places like Wisconsin and Louisiana — I found…
Wu-Tang’s RZA found his second chance in Steubenville
RZA “WISDOM OF THE WORD” TOUR moderated by Terrance Hayes. 7:30 p.m. Thu., April 18. New Hazlett Theater Allegheny Square East North Side. $20-65. All ages. 412-622-8866 or pittsburghlectures.org RZA is known worldwide as one of hip hop’s pioneering figures: Wu-Tang Clan member, MC and producer, actor and director. On April 18, he appears as…
Spinal Injury
As Gov. Tom Corbett heads into the backstretch of his term, he’s garnered a reputation as someone willing to do almost anything for the big-money players. The drilling industry gives him campaign contributions, UPMC gives him hockey tickets … and supposedly he rolls right over. We should be so lucky. The truth is, Corbett is…
Iceage’s You’re Nothing creates something more than a fusion
ICEAGE with WEED NAP, ZEITGEIST, GOTOBEDS. 9 p.m. Fri., April 12. 6119 6119 Penn Ave. East Liberty. $8. All ages. facebook.com/6119Penn On Iceage’s sophomore album, You’re Nothing, the Copenhagen band wages war upon itself, demonstrating a range which teeters between melodious beauty and animal violence. Middle ground is hard to come by, so it is…
