Affordable-housing advocates allege LG Realty tried to manipulate Pittsburgh Planning Commission
Advocates say a new group supporting LG Realty could unfairly sway the planning commission in favor of Penn Plaza development.
Listen Up! Dec. 14
Every Wednesday, we make a Spotify playlist containing tracks from artists mentioned in the current music section. Give it a listen below:
Internationally known photographer at Pittsburgh’s Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild tomorrow for “Modern Slavery” show
Xyza Cruz Bacani highlights struggles of foreign domestic workers
MP3 Monday: Dinosoul
This week’s MP3 comes from indie-rock four-piece Dinosoul. Stream or download “Dimension,” the atmospheric and dramatic title track from the band’s new EP for free below, and read more about the band here. To download, right-click here and select “save as.”
Hundreds jump into cold Ohio River for annual Pittsburgh Polar Plunge charity event
Hundreds of Pittsburghers brave the cold waters of the Ohio River for annual Polar Plunge
Lynn Cullen Live 12/09/16
Video Archive You can listen to the audio archive here. More horrifying appointments from the president-elect. Trump and limited liability companies.Trump will continue to executive produce The Celebrity Apprentice. Airlines leaning toward allowing phone calls on planes. Audio Only Archive Listen to the Audio Archives on with our new Apple and Android Apps or the…
Trial set for Martin Esquivel-Hernandez; advocates call for Pittsburgh to become a sanctuary city
An undocumented Pittsburgh immigrant rejected a plea deal that would have lead to his deportation.
Pittsburgh church replaces vandalized Black Lives Matter banner
This week First Unitarian Church of Pittsburgh hung a Black Lives Matter banner on their bell tower after a lawn sign bearing the same message was vandalized last month.
Final performances of “Between Riverside and Crazy” at Pittsburgh Public Theater
Pulitzer-winner has five more showings through Sunday
Bread, Wine, Chocolate: The Slow Loss of the Foods We Love
Find out how seeking out and cultivating the most delicious foods may also be the path to creating food security.
CP Podcast: Heavy Metal Africa
In today’s episode, Alex Gordon and Margaret Welsh sit down with Edward Banchs, author of Heavy Metal Africa: Life, Passion and Heavy Metal in the Forgotten Continent (Word Association Publishers), discussing how the art-form thrives in the continent and why nobody thinks it does. Special thanks to Zombies Ate My Girlfriend, who shared “Appropriate Hate…
Lynn Cullen Live 12/08/16
Video Archive You can listen to the audio archive here. Notorious RBG. Trump attacks a union leader on twitter and leader gets death threats. Trump EPA appointment. Audio Only Archive Listen to the Audio Archives on with our new Apple and Android Apps or the computer audio player.
Pittsburgh City Paper Booze Battles: Spice Island Tea House vs. Franktuary
Each week, we order the same cocktail at two different bars for a friendly head-to-head battle. Go to the bars, taste them both and tell us what you like about each by tagging @pghcitypaper on Twitter or Instagram and using #CPBoozeBattles. If you want to be a part of Booze Battles, send an email to…
Lungs at Off the Wall Productions
LUNGS continues through Dec. 17. Off the Wall at Carnegie Stages, 25 W. Main Street. Carnegie. $25-40. 724-873-3576. insideoffthewall.com British playwright Duncan MacMillan achieves a rare feat with his 2011 play Lungs, making its Pittsburgh premiere at Off the Wall Productions. He’s written a two-character play about a man and a woman, stuffing it with…
Savage Love
I’m a 37-year-old gay man who just got out of an abusive relationship. We were together five years, moved to Portland together, got married three years ago, yada, yada, yada. He suffered a traumatic injury earlier this year, which led to PTSD, which led to a nervous breakdown, which led to our savings being depleted,…
The Lion in Winter at PICT Classic Theatre
THE LION IN WINTER continues through Dec. 17. PICT Classic at the Union Project, 801 N. Negley Avenue, Highland Park. $15-50. 412-561-6000 or picttheatre.org There is a delicious insouciance among the characters in PICT Classic Theatre’s The Lion in Winter, which is refreshing, as so many productions these days fall prey to psychological tendentiousness. This…
Pittsburgh’s Command B.R.O.S. are making a splash in the world of scenario paintball
Like most forty-somethings, friends Rahim Jones and Carl Harrington wanted to find an activity to get them up off the couch and moving. Also, like a lot of forty-something Gen Xers, they grew up playing video games, so if they were leaving the house, it had to be for something challenging and entertaining. They realized…
Midnight Radio’s Holiday Spectacular! at Bricolage
MIDNIGHT RADIO’S HOLIDAY SPECTACULAR! continues through Dec. 17. Bricolage Productions, 937 Liberty Ave., Downtown. $35. 412-471-0999 or bricolagepgh.org Offbeat to the max, Midnight Radio’s Holiday Spectacular! is the perfect vintage throwback for the season. Performed in the style of a 1940s radio program, this Bricolage production is a delightful nod to holiday mainstays while including…
Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown changes name to Ronald, media confused
Antonio Brown wants you to call him Ronald. He didn’t say why, just “From now on call me Ronald.” I know about this “news” because it was reported absolutely everywhere. It was on television, in print, online and in publications ranging from small outlets to USA Today. He announced the name change after practice last…
Point Park’s Ballet Off-Center program
CONSERVATORY DANCE COMPANY’S BALLET OFF-CENTER continues through Sun., Dec. 11. Pittsburgh Playhouse, 222 Craft Ave., Oakland. $10-24. 412-392-8000 or pittsburghplayhouse.com Fresh off its annual Contemporary Choreographers program, Point Park’s Conservatory Dance Company is presenting another intriguing program of contemporary ballet works, Ballet Off-Center, at the Pittsburgh Playhouse. The production, as viewed this past Friday, began with Beyoncé…
Local cyclist takes on the Dirty Dozen in weight-loss journey
On Nov. 26, hundreds of cyclists climbed up a hill in Stanton Heights as part of Pittsburgh’s iconic Dirty Dozen bicycle race. The course traverses the city and its suburbs, and cyclists must climb 13 of the area’s steepest hills along its 50-mile length. On this cold, gloomy day, most cyclists were riding ultra-light bikes…
This weekend, Pittsburgh indie-pop band Dinosoul releases a new EP and plays its biggest gig yet
DINOSOUL with SHE WANTS REVENGE 8 p.m. Sat., Dec. 10. Mr. Smalls Theatre, 400 Lincoln Ave., Millvale. $25. 412-821-4447 or mrsmalls.com. DIMENSION RELEASE SHOW 9 p.m. Sun., Dec. 11.Spirit, 242 51st St., Lawrenceville. $5-10. 412-586-4441 or spiritpgh.com Indie-pop act Dinosoul got its start in a living room. About a year ago, partners Heather Donny Donovan…
Trading Andrew McCutchen would send the Pittsburgh Pirates back to the bad old days
In the worst-kept secret of baseball’s off-season, the Pirates want to get rid of Andrew McCutchen. “You’ve been the franchise’s best player in 25 years; now get out.” That’s the only way to compete with the Cubs and Cardinals next year, apparently. Sure, his first seven seasons included an MVP, a Gold Glove, and five…
Dennis Maher’s deconstructed/reconstituted Second Home is a thing of beauty at the Mattress Factory
A SECOND HOME continues through August 2019. 516 Sampsonia Way, North Side. 412-231-3169 or mattress.org Dennis Maher’s A Second Home, currently filling all three floors of the Mattress Factory’s row-house annex, utilizes salvaged materials, antique furniture, toys, timber, video projections and audio loops to create an immersive domestic phantasm that ruminates and reflects on the…
Short List: Dec 7-13
SPOTLIGHT: Fri., Dec. 9 – Dance Fluids make up some 50 to 65 percent of our bodies. In the latest edition of its “memory” series, memory 5, Dec. 9 and 10 at Wood Street Galleries, dance troupe slowdanger explores how our memories seep into those fluids — and how the fluids, in turn, move along,…
Pittsburgh City Council takes step to protect LGBT minors with conversion therapy ban
When Parker Howard was in middle school, growing up in Kentucky, he went to a summer church mission camp. It wasn’t his first year at the camp, but that summer was different from the others. “In the middle of the mission camp,” says Howard, “they sat us down in this room and they were telling…
Miracle on Liberty
Beverage consultants and bartenders Spencer Warren and Carrie Clayton have a Christmas present for Pittsburgh. Although they’ve been busy building menus and training staff in bars around the city, when the opportunity came to pop-up a holiday bar for a month, they set to work. Miracle on Liberty opened on Nov. 25 to much fanfare.…
Pittsburgh’s indie-bookstore revival continues
In the 1990s, the rise of chain booksellers threatened independent bookstores; in the 2000s, the advent of Amazon and, later, e-books, looked to seal their fate. But in Pittsburgh as nationally — even as the chains themselves have dwindled — friendly neighborhood bookshops continue their unlikely comeback. “The idea that independently owned bookstores are a…
In wake of controversial shows, theater artists gather to discuss equitable casting
EQUITABLE CASTING: A TOWN HALL FOR PITTSBURGH’S THEATER COMMUNITY 6-9 p.m. Mon., Dec. 12. Charity Randall Theatre, Stephen Foster Memorial, 4301 Forbes Ave., Oakland. Free. Register at pittsburghartscouncil.org. This past July, Little Lake Theatre Company staged a production of Anna in the Tropics, Nilo Cruz’s Pulitzer-winning 2003 play about Cuban immigrants, and cast all the…
The Tower
The Tower Directed by Keith Maitland Starts Fri., Dec. 9. Harris “He’s up in the tower!” Keith Maitland’s affecting, documentary-ish film The Tower recounts the fraught two hours before, during and after America’s first significant mass shooting on a school campus. At midday, on Aug. 1, 1966, at the University of Texas at Austin, a…
Critics’ Picks, Dec. 8-14
[FOLK PUNK] + FRI., DEC. 9 Koji is a songwriter overflowing with emotion, and his honesty and integrity is something the world could use a little of right now. The last song Koji released was “Keeping Count,” about empathy and compassion in a time when politicians are as corrupt and blatantly racist as ever. Pittsburgh’s…
The Handmaiden
The Handmaiden In Korean and Japanese, with subtitles. Starts Fri., Dec. 9. Regent Square Park Chan-wook’s new film, The Handmaiden, is an erotic, languid crime thriller set on an isolated country estate, in 1930s Japanese-occupied Korea. Living there is a fragile bird, Lady Hideko (Min-hee Kim), who is under the thumb of her domineering uncle…
Q&M’s Fish, Chik & Ribs in Plum offers smoky barbecue and excellent sides
Q&M’s Fish, Chik & Ribs 100 Boyce Park Drive, Plum. 412-795-1905 Hours: Wed.-Fri. noon-7 p.m.; Sat. 1-7 p.m. Prices: $4-13 Liquor: BYOB Ever alert to the possibility of barbecue, Jason was the one to spot the storefront in a little strip mall just off Saltsburg Road, near Boyce Park in Plum. We drove past in…
Manchester By The Sea
Lee (Casey Affleck) seems like a pretty closed-up guy, living alone in the Boston area and working as a janitor. Yet he’s likely plodding along under some burdens — he rages out at strangers and his bleak haunted look matches the gloomy winter skies. He gets a call that his older brother has died, and…
Tupelo Honey Teas opens up a new shop for tea and light fare in Millvale
Walking into Tupelo Honey Teas’ new brick-and-mortar spot in Millvale makes you, not unexpectedly, want to curl up in an armchair with a cup of steaming tea. An electric fireplace blazes a simulated flame; there are small lamps for each tabletop and, on the shelves, gift baskets that double as ornaments for sale. “I want…
Nocturnal Animals
Unhappily married art-gallery owner Susan (Amy Adams) receives a book manuscript in the mail, a novel penned by her estranged ex-husband, Edward (Jake Gyllenhaal); the book is dedicated to her, and there’s a note that suggests they meet. So Susan, who doesn’t sleep well — she is among the titular nocturnal animals — stays up…
350 & Counting
Read the full version here
Film Kitchen
The monthly series for local and independent artists is highlighted by “Connection Lost (The Tinder Opera).” The clever romantic comedy features original music sung by actual opera singers, including tenor Scott Joiner as a young man trying (and failing) to date via social media. Credited to Joiner and Pittsburgh native Adam Taylor, and shot in…
Weird Pittsburgh: Moldy Cheese, real public toilets and a pile of body parts for just $10
Discussion at a recent meeting of the Gateway School Board, which serves Monroeville and Pitcairn, was dominated by what board president Chad Stubenbort dubbed “cheesegate.” The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that a whistleblower in the district’s food-services department shared with the board pictures allegedly taken recently in cafeteria coolers. One showed cheese growing blue mold with…
Kristin Hersh of Throwing Muses and 50FOOTWAVE talks about her new solo record, near-death experiences, and finding balance in everything
KRISTIN HERSH. 8 p.m. Tue., Dec. 13. $20. Club Café, 56 S. 12th St., South Side. $20. 412-431-4950 or clubcafelive.com. In order to survive as a professional musician, an artist needs to find balance. Sure, there needs to be equilibrium between one’s professional and personal lives, but plenty of it is required when it comes…
Brunello di Montalcino, Caparzo La Casa 2007
I love older vintage wine. Right now everyone seems to want newer wine, 2015. This one has very interesting characteristics. It’s very smooth and it’s very drinkable without food. Most Italian wine you drink with food. — Recommended by Franco Braccia, owner, Senti Restaurant and Wine Bar Brunello di Montalcino, Caparzo La Casa 2007 is…
Despite busy schedules and physical distance, the members of San Diego-based instrumental psych-rock band Earthless manage to stay on the same page
EARTHLESS, RUBY THE HATCHET, CRUCES 9:30 p.m. Thu., Dec. 15. Club Café. 56 S. 12th St., South Side. $15-17. 412-431-4950 or clubcafelive.com That the members of Earthless are able to achieve their unique brand of blues-based synchronicity — alternately focused and freewheeling — owes a lot to off-stage efforts to get on the same page.…
White Chicken Chili
I used to watch football for hours on Sundays, but these days I tend to get bored somewhere between the ball being kicked off and caught. I can’t say I miss it much, but I do miss the free time, shameless laziness and long-form cooking involved. In our post-college years, my friends and I developed…
Joined by bassist Harrison Bankhead, tenor saxophonist David Murray and drummer Kahil El’Zabar bring their long partnership to Pittsburgh
RITUAL TRIO WITH DAVID MURRAY, KAHIL EL’ZABAR & HARRISON BANKHEAD 8 p.m. Sun., Dec. 11. James Street Gastropub, 422 Foreland Ave., North Side. $25-30. 412-904-3335 or jamesstreetgastropub.com David Murray and Kahil El’Zabar have a music partnership that began in 1975, but they didn’t meet at a loft or on the bandstand. Murray, then a college…
Lynn Cullen Live 12/07/16
Video Archive You can listen to the audio archive here. Where is Obama? Trump mucking around in foreign politics and “The Madman Theory.” Trolley problems and self driving cars. Audio Only Archive Listen to the Audio Archives on with our new Apple and Android Apps or the computer audio player.
Lynn Cullen Live 12/02/16
Video Archive You can listen to the audio archive here. Death by selfie. APATHY graffiti writer continues to fascinate. General Mattis appointed Secretary of Defense. Pakistani report on transcript of the phone call with their Prime Minister. Audio Only Archive Listen to the Audio Archives on with our new Apple and Android Apps or the…
