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Oct 7-13, 2015 - Pittsburgh City Paper | News, Dining, Music, Best Of, Arts, Film

Listen Up! Oct. 14

Every Wednesday, we make a Spotify playlist containing tracks from artists covered in the current music section —including selections from some of this year’s Best Of winners. Listen below!

Extended Q&A with The Zombies’ Chris White

With The Zombies playing Carnegie Music Hall of Homestead Wednesday night, I had the chance to talk with two founding members of the band: keyboardist Rod Argent and bassist Chris White. The pair were the two main songwriters for the band; Argent, who has toured regularly with the current iteration of the band, is the…

MP3 Monday: The Park Plan

This week’s track comes from local indie power-pop outfit The Park Plan. The band will release its new EP, Junior Achievement, this Saturday at Howlers; you can stream or download “Good Guy with a Gun,” the single from the record, below.  This download link has expired, sorry!

Lynn Cullen Live 10/12/15

Video Archive You can listen to the audio archive here. Indigenous People’s Day and Christopher Columbus. American and the Homeland. Obama’s interview on 60 minutes. Jack Kelly’s latest column on candidates and his “dream team” Audio Only Archive Listen to the Audio Archives on with our new Apple and Android Apps or the computer audio…

Lynn Cullen Live 10/09/15

Video Archive You can listen to the audio archive here. Lynn discusses Off The Record, CNN’s Heroes, Speaker of The House, and the late, great Frank Albanese. Audio Only Archive Listen to the Audio Archives on with our new Apple and Android Apps or the computer audio player.

Lynn Cullen Live 10/08/15

Video Archive You can listen to the audio archive here. Beijing youth take on a new trend of bean sprouts. Joan Weill will not get her druthers. Little kid at the Pirates game. Pope defends alleged child abuser. Audio Only Archive Listen to the Audio Archives on with our new Apple and Android Apps or…

‘Living’ Frick Park welcome center more than half completed

Video by Ashley Murray At a Beechwood Boulevard entrance to historic Frick Park is a 60 percent-completed educational and welcome center. The three-story, 15,000-square-foot structure promises to be a model of 21st-century innovation. “This project has been a long time coming,” says Parks Conservancy Director of Education Marijke Hecht. “The building that it replaces was…

A Conversation with Gerald Stern

GERALD STERN 7 p.m. Tue., Oct. 13. Carnegie Lecture Hall, 4400 Forbes Ave., Oakland. Free. 412-622-8866 or pittsburghlectures.org Talking to Gerald Stern is like talking to your favorite teacher from high school. He is opinionated, passionate, humorous and exceedingly gracious. He is also a storyteller, and in the 75 minutes of our scheduled 20-minute interview,…

The Diary of Anne Frank at the Public

THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK continues through Oct. 25. Pittsburgh Public Theater, 621 Penn Ave., Downtown. $30-70. 412-316-1600 or ppt.org Pittsburgh Public Theater’s production of The Diary of Anne Frank is top-notch. Every performer has captured the nuances and subtleties of all the characters in this 1955 play about one girl’s experience of the Holocaust.…

Critics’ Picks, Oct. 8-14

[FOLK] + SAT., OCT. 10 There has been a recent revival of old-time music, including early 20th-century folk, country and blues, albeit updated for a modern audience. Pushin’ Against a Stone, the debut album by Tennessee soulstress Valerie June, was produced in part by Black Keys guitarist Dan Auerbach, who is himself guilty of perpetuating…

I.D. at New Horizon Theater

It comes as no surprise to learn that NSangou Njikam’s I.D. premiered, in July, at South Africa’s Grahamstown National Arts Festival. The play confronts and exposes questions of worldly identity that transcend boundaries. Commissioned by Penn State University, and directed for New Horizon Theater by Steve Broadnax, I.D. forces us to recognize our interconnectedness with…

Municipal ID cards would provide greater access at a lower cost

When voter-ID laws that would require voters to show identification at the polls began springing up around the country four years ago, it started a national conversation about the barriers many marginalized groups face when attempting to acquire a photo ID.  Locally, the price of a state-issued photo ID isn’t cheap: You need a check…

The Outgoing Tide at Apple Hill

THE OUTGOING TIDE continues through Sat., Oct. 10. Apple Hill Playhouse, 275 Manor Road, Delmont. $15-40. 724-468-5050 or applehillplayhouse.org There’s something to be said for James Dean’s line “Live fast, die young and leave a good-lookin’ corpse” — especially when you consider the alternative, which Philadelphia-based playwright Bruce Graham does in his moving drama The…

East Liberty residents question city concessions to Penn Plaza owners

The Penn Plaza Apartments deal may be done, but that doesn’t mean everyone is happy about it. After receiving eviction notices in July by the complex’s owners, Pennley Park South (a subsidiary of LG Realty, which is owned by the Gumberg family), residents launched an effort to hold off evictions from the below-market-rate apartments. Last…

Death of a Salesman at the Red Masquers

DEATH OF A SALESMAN continues through Oct. 18. Red Masquers at the Genesius Theater, Duquesne campus, Uptown. $5-15. duqredmasquers.com While Death of a Salesman is a canonical play, I had always thought of Willy Loman as a contemporary tragic type. At the Duquesne University Red Masquers’ new production, it struck me for the first time…

Wysocki waxes nostalgic: Quaaludes, cheap seats and world titles

Whether it’s Throwback Thursday, Flashback Friday or Turn-back-the-clock Tuesday, we love nostalgia. Even though, most of the time, the past is over-romanticized.  The 1950s, to a lot of people, is the golden era to which we should strive to return. Well, that’s great if you love segregation, unfettered air pollution and polio. But for Pittsburgh…

Dance legend Joan Myers Brown and Philadanco return

PHILADANCO 8 p.m. Fri., Oct. 9. August Wilson Center, 980 Liberty Ave., Downtown. $20-35. 412-456-6666 or trustarts.org The pope’s recent three-city U.S. tour shut down roads and businesses at each stop, including The Philadelphia Dance Company. Philadanco, as the company is known, is the home of another figure who, while not as famous as the…

Erased

She tells me the trouble is that I’m not /gay/ enough, and (as her nose tips upward and her legs fold together) that my nails need to be filed. I tell her the trouble is that I’m not /gay/ at all, and that the space the table makes between us is slightly greater than arm’s…

Reel Q: The Pittsburgh International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival

The 30th annual Pittsburgh International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, now known as Reel Q, runs Fri., Oct. 9, through Oct. 17. It features 16 narrative and documentary films, three programs of shorts and opening- and closing-night parties.  The opening-night film is Out to Win (7 p.m. Fri., Oct. 9), Malcolm Ingram’s new inspirational documentary…

Sicario

FBI agent Kate Macer (Emily Blunt) joins a task force that is chasing a major Mexican drug-cartel leader. From the outset, the by-the-book Macer is troubled by the group’s fuzzy mission, and the two cavalier men who control it: Graver (Josh Brolin), who claims to be from Defense, and Alejandro (Benecio Del Toro), a Colombian.…

Stuff We Like

DiFiore’s Ice Cream Delite. Still time before winter to grab a cone here and stroll along Grandview Avenue. 120 Shiloh St., Mount Washington Design Crush. This popular site devoted to both local and national art and design, compiled by Pittsburgh graphic designer Kelly Beall, never fails to inspire. www.designcrushblog.com The Great British Baking Show. Home cooks…

He Named Me Malala

Malala Yousafzai is certainly a remarkable individual, and Davis Guggenheim’s documentary profile does a fine job explaining the events that catapulted the Pakistani teenager to the world stage. In defiance of Taliban orders, Malala attended school in her Swat valley town and spoke out about girls’ right to be educated. In 2012, she was shot…

Short List: October 7 – 15

SPOTLIGHT: Oct. 10-11 — Festival Newcomers are often surprised to learn that Larimer’s TechShop offers blacksmithing, says general manager Matt Verlinich; “I thought this was a computer place,” they’ll say. Well, it’s that, too. But TechShop, a locus of the maker movement in Pittsburgh, is designed to help you fabricate everything from 3-D-printed key fobs…

In My Father’s House

Ricki Stern and Anne Sundberg’s documentary opens with statistics about how many African-American kids grow up in fatherless homes, and suggests a correlation with later troubles in life. What unfolds next is an engaging, warts-and-all account of one fatherless boy, who later in life undertakes to understand the issue from the inside out.  Chicago-based rapper…

Adolfo’s

Adolfo’s 4770 Liberty Ave., Bloomfield 412-681-0505 Hours: Tue.-Thu. 11 a.m.-9 p.m.; Fri.-Sat. 11 a.m.-10 p.m.; Sun. 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Prices: Appetizers, soups, and salads and sides $5-11; entrees $17-25 Liquor: BYOB We Americans can get so caught up in our melting-pot mythos that we sometimes forget that immigrants shaped the cultures — and cuisines — of many other…

Pan

If there are such people as Peter Pan purists, they might want to give Joe Wright’s new adventure a miss. It features some notable deviations from the J.M. Barrie canon, including a significant jump ahead in era and the introduction of a two-handed character named Hook, who will later be known for … um ……

The Walk

Robert Zemeckis’ film recounts dramatic events in 1974, when French high-wire artist Philippe Petit walked between the two World Trade Center towers (also the subject of the 2008 documentary Man on Wire). Most viewers will find at least one part of this bifurcated film tough to sit through. For me, I couldn’t stand the cutesy…

Pairing cheeses and beers with cheesemonger Richard Derzic Jr.

This is the time of year to unfasten that top button and eat really rich food with abandon. For the impending hibernation, consider a feast of beer and cheese. After all, beer is made with grains, and said grains also feed the milk-producing animals responsible for that heavenly substance, cheese. With its famed cheese counter…

Film Kitchen

The program includes six shorts by Scott N. Andrew. A highlight is “Neráides: Fall of the Subterranean Hive,” Andrew’s entertaining if dialogueless 2011 fantasy whose campiness, theatricality and overtones of fable echo Kenneth Anger and Jack Smith: The hero, naked except for glitter paint, and his leashed sex thrall traverse a woodland and contend with…

PNC’s new office tower is green — but just how green?

“Best drummer in the world?” John Lennon supposedly replied with incredulity to a question about Ringo Starr. “He’s not even the best drummer in The Beatles.” You could have a similar exchange over Downtown’s Tower at PNC Plaza, which officially opened last Thursday. Is it the greenest building in the world, as its advocates regularly…

On the Record with Kinky Friedman

In his nearly 71 years on earth, Kinky Friedman has been a Peace Corp volunteer, a top chess player, a writer of mystery novels and a politician. But at the root of it all, this Texan by-way-of Chicago is a musician. The man known as the Jewish Cowboy has been writing songs and performing since…

Stars’ Torquil Campbell on the power of vulnerability

STARS with GEOGRAPHER 9 p.m. Fri., Oct. 9. Mr. Small’s Theatre. 400 Lincoln Ave., Millvale. $20-22. 412-821-4447 or www.mrsmalls.com It’s a relief to hear that Stars is still for fags.  Seven autumns ago, “Stars is for fags” was emblazoned in pale-purple letters on a unisex American Apparel tee. It would become an iconic tour T-shirt,…

Savage Love

I’m a gay man who is ready to start cheating on my boyfriend. We’ve had a wonderful 3.5-year-long relationship full of respect, affection, support and fun. I love everything about our relationship, and our sex life was great… until he moved in, eight months into the relationship. At that point, he lost all interest. I’ve…

Lynn Cullen Live 10/07/15

Video Archive You can listen to the audio archive here. Biden considers running. Major release of 6,000 inmates from prisons. U.S. ship sinks off Puerto Rico. The insanity of the Republican candidates. Audio Only Archive Listen to the Audio Archives on with our new Apple and Android Apps or the computer audio player.


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