Peduto to officiate group wedding for LGBT couples
Hot off the presses from Mayor Bill Peduto’s office, an invitation for LGBT couples to take part in the first -ever wedding ceremony prepared by the relatively new mayor. Same-sex marriage came to be in Pennsylvania last week thanks to a ruling from U.S. District Judge John Jones. The following is the official announcement of…
Man Forever will play The Shop Saturday
man forever, oneida, so percussion, the shop, tigue
Final weekend for Comfort Zone at Pittsburgh Playwrights
Three more performances for local playwright’s drama
Outdoor free-flight shows return to the Aviary on Saturday
Aviary’s first outdoor summer show in five years
2014 Westsylvania Jazz & Blues Festival to happen Saturday
This Saturday a free jazz and blues festival will take hold of Indiana, Pa., with talent ranging from veteran artists Poogie Bell, Sonny Landreth and Sean Jones to a dad jazz group and high school jazz bands. The 2014 Westsylvania Jazz and Blues Festival will be held at IRMC Park in downtown Indiana, located at…
In cross-town legislative races, a combination punch for city progressives (UPDATED)
OK, so it might be a bit premature to get that “New Pittsburgh” tattoo after all. That’s one of the nagging doubts some progressives went to bed with last night, after Tuesday’s Democratic primary resulted in defeats for both Tom Michalow and state Rep. Erin Molchany. Both candidates were running in city/suburb hybrid districts, against…
First same-sex couple weds in Allegheny County
Photo by Alex Zimmerman Jess Garrity, right, and Pamela VanHaitsma became the first same-sex couple to be legally married in Allegheny County When Jess Garrity and Pamela VanHaitsma appeared at the City-County building this morning, an hour before the Marriage License Bureau opened, they thought there would certainly be a crowd of other same-sex couples…
Corbett won’t appeal same-sex marriage ruling
The Associated Press is reporting that Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett will not appeal Tuesday’s federal ruling allowing same-sex marriage in Pennsylvania. According to the report Corbett said an appeal would be “extremely unlikely to succeed.” “Governor Corbett’s decision not to waste taxpayers’ money defending the indefensible denial of the freedom to marry even one day…
Judge waives waiting period so same-sex couple can wed
Photo by Alex Zimmerman Jess Garrity, left, and Pamela VanHaitsma From our reporter Alex Zimmerman who has been stationed at the City-County building today Orphans court judge Lawrence O’Toole granted a waiver today for a same sex couple seeking to avoid the typical three-day waiting period required before a marriage license is issued. The couple,Jess…
PennDOT denies name change for woman legally married in New York
Despite a federal judge’s order allowing same-sex marriage yesterday, Maggie DeMont didn’t come Downtown seeking a marriage license Wednesday morning: She was already married. What she wanted was to pay PennDOT $12.50 to legally change her last name to Conroy — the name of the wife she married last September in New York. She previously…
Same-sex couples already seeking marriage licenses from Allegheny County
There were four same-sex couples lined up in the lobby of the City County Building shortly after 8 a.m. this morning — nearly half an hour before the wills/orphans division of the county’s Department of Court Records opened for business. And suffice it to say: None of them were there to pick up passports. All…
John Stolz warns of danger when past, present drilling practices collide
John Stolz began researching the effects of gas-drilling in 2010, not long after the hydrofracturing boom took hold in Pennsylvania. These days, the Duquesne University microbiologist regularly serves as an independent expert on how fracking — in which large volumes of water, sand and chemicals are injected underground under high pressure to break up rock…
Pittsburgh Playwrights’ Comfort Zone
COMFORT ZONE continues through Sat., May 24. 937 Liberty Ave., Downtown. $20-25. 412-687-4686 or www.pghplaywrights.com There’s a great deal of pleasure to be had from Marlon Erik Youngblood’s Comfort Zone, at Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company. Foremost is Playwrights’ nurturing of this local playwright and his play. Comfort Zone debuted as a one-act in the company’s…
The life and times of legendary local jazz sideman Lou Schreiber
It’s a fetid Tuesday night at the North Side Elks, and the air inside is redolent with fried shrimp. People are filling the long tables in the Allegheny Room: moms ‘n’ pops, grammers ‘n’ grampers, kids giggling and running about. Up on stage, the members of the Pittsburgh Banjo Club unsheathe their instruments: banjoes, sure,…
South Park Theatre’s A Love Affair
A LOVE AFFAIR continues through May 31. South Park Theatre, Corrigan Drive and Brownsville Road, South Park. $12. 412-831-8552 or southparktheatre.com Relationships are a work in progress. That sentiment is at the heart of A Love Affair, a romantic comedy by former television writer Jerry Mayer that follows Jimmy and Alice Diamond across four decades…
Savage Love
I am a genetic male with questions about my gender identity. Straddling desires to maintain my stature in the professional world, keep my wife at my side, and become who I feel like I am, I have experimented with crossdressing, chastity, antiandrogens and steroids. My wife and I have reached a middle ground where I…
A new book on Rachel Carson illuminates her environmental foremothers, colleagues and heirs
PICNIC AT RACHEL’S with author Robert K. Musil 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Sat., May 24. Rachel Carson Homestead, 613 Marion Ave. Springdale. Free; reserve at 412-828-4877 or mysterylovers.com Convention labels Rachel Carson as the mother of modern environmentalism. But Carson, too, had a mother — and plenty of spiritual grandmothers, sisters and granddaughters. Fifty years after…
TO BE A WOMAN
means you aren’t really supposed to trust any men. When your husband leaves the car to buy some water and the driver hits the pedal, you yell – Not yet! Go back! He says, I’m just turning around, Ma’am! Ma’am, please! You feel like an ass. But you were thinking of the Swiss woman gang-raped…
Godzilla
Godzilla Directed by: Gareth Edwards Starring: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Elizabeth Olsen, Bryan Cranston, Ken Watanabe In 3-D in select theaters. Few monsters have made as many trips to the big screen as Godzilla (né Gojira), and viewers love to see the super-sized irradiated sea lizard stomp cities and battle other giant beasties. Gareth Edwards delivers that…
Short List: May 22 – 29
SPOTLIGHT: Sun., May 25 — Screen We are currently at peak ’90s nostalgia. We also have no shortage of artists sampling and recontextualizing ready-made bits of audiovisual material from every time and place they can think of. But very few of these artists can maintain the balance between humor and intelligence quite as well as…
Belle
In late-18th-century Britain, mixed-race Dido (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) is raised in genteel wealth by her white father’s family, headed by Lord Mansfield (Tom Wilkinson). But while she enjoys tremendous privilege, her coming-of-age is complicated by both her gender and her race. Amma Asante’s film Belle is an historical fiction, inspired by a painting of real people…
Kavsar
Kavsar 16 Southern Ave., Mount Washington 412-488-8708 or 412-488-8709 Hours: Daily noon-11 p.m. Prices: Appetizers, soups and salads $2-9; entrees $7-13 Liquor: None Suddenly, options abound for Central Asian dining — a category which did not even really exist in Pittsburgh before last year. It began with a mini-wave of Nepalese restaurants; now Kavsar, an…
Blended
It starts as a blind date gone wrong (at Hooters, natch) between Jim (Adam Sandler) and Lauren (Drew Barrymore) and ends up in the happily ever after. In between, our two love matches — each a single parent — take their broods on an awkward shared vacation to a South Africa resort, where common ground…
Summer Guide 2014
Summer Guide: Summer Music Summer Film Summer Arts + Exhibits Summer Stage Summer Fairs, Festivals + Special Events Summer Outdoors Summer Kids
Ernest and Celestine
This sweet animated family film from Stéphane Aubier, Vincent Patar and Benjamin Renner is a welcome antidote to the frantic toy commercials that frequently appear as kids’ movies. (It was nominated for a 2014 Oscar, but lost to Frozen.) Illustrated in a charming watercolor style, it tells the simple story of a young mouse, Celestine,…
Summer Music
Summer Guide: Summer Music Summer Film Summer Arts + Exhibits Summer Stage Summer Fairs, Festivals + Special Events Summer Outdoors Summer Kids VENUES 31st Street Pub. 3101 Penn Ave., Strip District. 412-391-8334 Altar Bar. 1620 Penn Ave., Strip District. 412-206-9719 Andy Warhol Museum. 117 Sandusky St., North Side. 412-237-8300 Bach, Beethoven and Brunch. Mellon Park.…
From Kellee Maize to Lady Gaga, artists find that brand deals can take the place of a label
At this year’s South By Southwest festival in March, Lady Gaga, the epitome of pop stardom, partnered with Frito-Lay — a deal that didn’t endear her to some critics. As the festival began, music writer John Pareles slammed Gaga in a New York Times blog post: “My face, physical presence, and social media accounts are…
Summer Films
Summer Guide: Summer Music Summer Film Summer Arts + Exhibits Summer Stage Summer Fairs, Festivals + Special Events Summer Outdoors Summer Kids We’ve barely finished complaining about the snow, and soon we’ll be seeking the relief of an air-conditioned movie theater. Here’s what you can expect to see this summer while enjoying a cool-down. Some…
T. Mitchell Bell mixes pop and environmental politics on new album
“Years ago this land was green — we put money in the soil,” sings T. Mitchell Bell on “Freedom Rust.” “Tide has turned and we learned to trade blood for oil. / Fill the air and skies above with mystery cocktails, / Chase it down with a shot of carbon to forget that it was…
Summer Arts + Exhibits
Summer Guide: Summer Music Summer Film Summer Arts + Exhibits Summer Stage Summer Fairs, Festivals + Special Events Summer Outdoors Summer Kids Current Irma Freeman Center for Imagination. Junk Collector & Scrabble King (collage by Robert Pollard), through Fri., May 23. Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Garden. Discovery Garden Day, Sat., May 24; Party in the…
Critics’ Picks: May 22 – 25
[NEW MUSIC] + THU., MAY 22 Robert Ashley’s opera Perfect Lives is a bit different from most pieces of music; for one thing, it’s not meant to be performed in one place. The nomadic composition goes indoors and out, here and there. Performed as part of this week’s Pittsburgh Festival of New Music, it’ll take…
Summer Stage
Summer Guide: Summer Music Summer Film Summer Arts + Exhibits Summer Stage Summer Fairs, Festivals + Special Events Summer Outdoors Summer Kids CURRENT Hope & Gravity. The lives of nine characters overlap in this “comedy about fate” by Michael Hollinger (Opus), through Sun., May 25 (City Theatre). Peter & The Starcatcher. Touring version of the…
New Releases
Connect & FTdub Need More Faster (Surface Level) Connect — who also performs with Fortified Phonetx — gets self-reflective on eight tracks (plus a bonus track), produced by FTdub. A lot of Connect’s rhymes deal with hip hop itself, language and power dynamics; he’s the contemplative counterpart to Phonetx bandmate Moemaw Naedon, who guests on…
Summer Fairs, Festivals + Special Events
Summer Guide: Summer Music Summer Film Summer Arts + Exhibits Summer Stage Summer Fairs, Festivals + Special Events Summer Outdoors Summer Kids ONGOING Pittsburgh Neighborhood Festivals. Held throughout the city through fall. 412-422-6405 or www.citiparks.net for complete list MAY 24 Pyrofest. Fireworks festival, Hartwood Acres. www.pyrofest.com MAY 26 Memorial Day Celebration. Soldiers & Sailors Hall,…
Summer Kids
Summer Guide: Summer Music Summer Film Summer Arts + Exhibits Summer Stage Summer Fairs, Festivals + Special Events Summer Outdoors Summer Kids ONGOING Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. Branches of the library citywide offer kids’ and teens’ programs — from storytime and crafting to children’s yoga — throughout the summer. www.carnegielibrary.org Carnegie Science Center. Lots of youth-friendly…
Summer Outdoors
Summer Guide: Summer Music Summer Film Summer Arts + Exhibits Summer Stage Summer Fairs, Festivals + Special Events Summer Outdoors Summer Kids ONGOING Big League Sports. Organized programs for kids include baseball, softball, soccer and track and field. Co-sponsored by Citiparks and the Pittsburgh Pirates. 412-488-8585 City of Play. Try a smorgasbord of games from…
The Brew Gentlemen open their long-awaited Braddock brewery this week
The Brew Gentlemen — Asa Foster and Matthew Katase — made a big splash in 2012, when they introduced their own beer for a Carnegie Mellon University class project. But after a stint spent pouring at dinners and street festivals — always in their charcoal-gray logoed jackets — the duo basically disappeared. The reason is…
In new exhibit of after-hours gay clubs, local historian unearths the city’s LGBT legacy
Lucky after Dark: Gay and Lesbian Nightlife in Pittsburgh 1960-1990. Opening party 6-9 p.m. Fri., May 30. Runs through Sun., June 29. Future Tenant, 818 Penn Ave., Downtown. 412-325-7037 or futuretenant.org To get a sense of the type of archeology that Harrison Apple is involved in, think Indiana Jones in the opening scene of Raiders…
Tom Sarver’s Occasional Market takes over 707 Penn
TOM SARVER: THE OCCASIONAL MARKET continues through June 22. 707 Penn Gallery, 707 Penn Ave., Downtown. 412-325-7017 or trustarts.org Tom Sarver’s art is characterized by a satire so gentle that it can be hard to tell whether it’s meant as criticism. Often, an established institution, in the broader sense of the word, is adapted to…
Yovi’s Hot Dogs in Market Square is your local source for Chicago-style Italian beef
Having spent time in Chicago and downstate Illinois, I discovered what I consider to be the greatest sandwich on earth — the Italian beef. The sandwich consists of sliced roast beef, which has been marinating in jus, on a hard roll. The entire thing is dipped back in the jus, then smothered in a pickled…
Expert panel recommends technology, cultural changes at Port Authority
Interactive bus shelters. Expanded late-night service. A mobile app that can allow users to buy rides with a credit card. Those were among the improvements suggested to Port Authority by experts who studied the transit system for a week. The panel of nine experts, culled by the nonprofit Washington, D.C.-based Urban Land Institute, laid out…
Eclectic Gallerie Chiz highlights work by Caroline Bagenal and Don Dugal.
NATURE & THE METAPHYSICAL continues through May 31. Gallerie Chiz, 5831 Ellsworth Ave., Shadyside. 412-441-6005 or galleriechiz.com It’s always surprised me that there are so few commercial galleries in Pittsburgh. While it’s not uncommon for mid-sized cities to lack a robust art trade, Pittsburgh is so culturally rich that it seems it could support more…
Lynn Cullen Live 05/21/14
Video Archive Guest: Jared Day, Daylee News Nuggets; last show of the week / no show next week; marriage equality happened in PA, judge endorsed by Rick Santorum; what will Corbett do?; divides in history between political parties; Putin losing his argument in Ukraine?; difference between what men & women are interested in regarding historical…
While same-sex couples celebrate marriage-equality ruling, some confusion lingers
While same-sex couples, and the people who support their right to be married, are celebrating a federal judge’s decision upholding same-sex marriage rights, the ruling by John E. Jones III may bring some uncertainty too — at least in the short term, and at least in some parts of the state. Jones didn’t just rule…
Federal judge strikes down state’s ban on same-sex marriage as unconstitutional (UPDATED)
In an often lyrical ruling handed down today, federal Judge John E. Jones III has invalidated Pennsylvania’s ban on same-sex marriage, holding that it violated the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. “All couples deserve equal dignity in the realm of civil marriage,” wrote Jones. And accordingly, “All Pennsylvanians have the right to marry the person…
