U.S. Department of State brings Experience America trip to Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh was the city of choice for the U.S. Department of State’s annual Experience America trip this year, bringing 30 ambassadors from across the globe to explore the city’s history, architecture, culture and technology.
National public-transit conference Rail-Volution coming to Pittsburgh in 2018
The national public-transportation conference Rail-Volution chose Pittsburgh because of its potential.
A night with PUP and Charly Bliss at Pittsburgh’s Spirit
A look at the state of “pop punk” in 2017, via PUP and Charly Bliss
Listen Up! June 21 Issue
A playlist of artists featured in this week’s music section
Lynn Cullen Live 06/20/17
Video Archive Lynn and Susan on cultural appropriation. Audio Only Archive Stream or download the last 5 shows on the MP3 downloads page.
Sierra Club files suit against the DEP over Cheswick power plant’s expired permit
Last week, the Sierra Club and concerned residents gathered at the DEP to announce a suit over Cheswick power plant’s expired permit.
Celebrities turn out for Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown’s charity softball game
Antonio Brown celebrity softball game benefits the Boys and Girls Club.
MP3 Monday: LEFTFIELD
Each week, we post a song from a local artist online for free. This week, it’s new music from LEFTFIELD, the highly skilled MC/producer duo of Reason and DOC LVLY. “Agency,” featuring LKHD and Rhetorical Artz, serves as a good introduction to their earnest, old school mentality and crisp, smart production. The album is Learned…
Lynn Cullen Live 06/19/17
Video Archive Extra-short episode. Audio Only Archive Stream or download the last 5 shows on the MP3 downloads page.
CP‘s Gift Guide for Father’s Day 2017
Tell dad you love him, or at least like him, with these 14 Father’s Day gifts.
Food Network’s ‘Ginormous Food’ show visits three Pittsburgh eateries
This week, three Pittsburgh-area restaurants will get their 15 minutes of fame. Carnegie’s Bakn, Downtown’s Emporio and every Pittsburgher’s favorite sandwich spot, Primanti Bros., will be featured on the Food Network show Ginormous Food at 8 p.m. Fri., June 16. In the show, comedian Josh Denny travels across America sampling a variety of dishes with…
The Pittsburgh JazzLive International Festival brings bold performers to three-day event
PITTSBURGH JAZZLIVE INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL Fri., June 16 through Sun., June 18. Various stages, Downtown. pittsburghjazzlive.com/schedule/ Now in its sixth year, the Pittsburgh JazzLive International Festival presents an array of performers for ticketed indoor performances and numerous free outdoor shows at stages around Penn Avenue, Downtown. While the Festival has typically welcomed both top-level acts along…
Savage Love
I’m almost 30 and I’m a virgin. I’m an overweight, straight-ish guy (I’m attracted to a few men, but those cases are exceedingly rare). I’ve also gone through an absolute hell life thus far, losing a testicle to cancer and having an abusive father who threatened a teenage me into celibacy by invoking the phrase…
The Mummy
The Mummy Directed by Alex Kurtzman Starring Tom Cruise, Sofia Boutella, Annabelle Wallis, Russell Crowe In 3-D, in select theaters If you’re a movie-producing entity currently without a “universe” (a.k.a. ever-regenerating franchise), woe unto you. So Universal has dusted off its classic 1930s movie monsters — Frankenstein, Dracula, Mr. Hyde, et al. — and set…
The Pittsburgh Penguins have established themselves as one of the best franchises in sports history
For a hockey fan in a hockey city, the sport seems bigger than all others. In some cities, they feel the same way about the NBA as Pittsburgh fans feel about the NHL. While the sport is popular across the country, in a hockey city it can feel just as big as the NFL, MLB…
This week in Pittsburgh Sports History
A look back at events that you’ve either forgotten or never heard of. June 16, 2012 The short-lived Pittsburgh Power of the Arena Football League becomes the first team in 15 seasons to complete a two-point dropkick. It would be the highlight of the franchise’s short existence. June 17, 1962 One of the greatest sports…
World-premiere opera A Gathering of Sons tackles police brutality
PITTSBURGH FESTIVAL OPERA PRESENTS A GATHERING OF SONS Thu., June 15-July 8. Various venues. $20-75. 412-326-9687 or pittsburghfestivalopera.org Tameka Cage Conley grew up in Louisiana, in a religious household where the dead were known to commune with the living. “There was definitely a belief in the spirit world when I was growing up. That spirits…
Pittsburgh Pirates affiliate the West Virginia Black Bears get ready for a new season
If it bothers you to spend a bunch of money on a major-league game just to see athletes with seven- or eight-digit salaries not run out a ground ball, pure, old-fashioned baseball exists just 80 minutes upstream on the Monongahela River. In Morgantown, the West Virginia Black Bears hustle on every play. While major-leaguers bank…
Five Questions with Colm Tóibín
COLM TÓIBÍN 7 p.m. Tue., June 20. Pittsburgh Arts and Lectures at Carnegie Library Lecture Hall, 4400 Forbes Ave., Oakland. $31 (includes copy of House of Names); students: $10 (admission only). 412-622-8866 or pittsburghlectures.org Your new book is called House of Names. Why a novel based on the The Oresteia? A new translation of a late…
Event will honor the life and art of Pittsburgh’s Jimmy Cvetic
I’ve known Jimmy Cvetic for a lot of years. Not that I’m special, of course, because there are thousands of people in Allegheny County who can say the same thing. The difference is which Jimmy Cvetic you know. He’s a former police officer and detective. He’s a boxing trainer. He’s a poet. He’s an artist.…
Paris Can Wait
After her movie-producer husband (Alec Baldwin) leaves for Budapest, Anne (Diane Lane) opts to take a car journey from Cannes to Paris in the company of his business associate, Jacques (Arnaud Viard). A relatively short drive turns into a leisurely two-day sojourn as Jacques — a committed sensualist — insists on stopping at top-rated bistros,…
Should a dog shot by a Pittsburgh Police officer be considered a weapon because the officer felt threatened?
On March 10, Pittsburgh police officers were conducting a drug investigation in the 200 block of Tipton Street, in Hazelwood, when they approached Marlon Jackson, who was standing on his front porch a few feet away from the officers. Police say they approached Jackson and asked him to remove his hands from his pockets. But…
Wakefield
Coming home late from his lawyer job in the city, Howard Wakefield — married, father to twin teen girls — impulsively decides to spend the night in the storage room above the garage of his suburban home. Then, Howard (Bryan Cranston) opts to stay there, without communicating his presence to anyone. He watches through the…
Advocates are concerned Port Authority’s new fare-check policy could lead to deportation of undocumented immigrants
According to statistics obtained by the Washington Post, immigration arrests rose 32 percent in the first few weeks of the Trump administration, compared to the same time period in 2016. In January, Trump signed an executive order declaring that immigrants could be detained merely for committing a criminal offense, even if no charges were filed…
Pittsburgh producer and rapper NVSV is having a prolific 2017
In a popular sketch from his eponymous TV show in 2004, Dave Chappelle spends a night on the town with Wayne Brady, the affable and famously inoffensive actor, singer and comedian. In the sketch, though, Brady shows a different side. He’s a pimp. There’s a drive-by. He bullies and manipulates Chappelle and eats his cheese…
New Releases: Stephen Sciulli
Stephen Sciulli High in the Mountain Get Hip Folk Series www.stephensciulli.bandcamp.com Stephen Sciulli has led a diverse musical life in Pittsburgh. A founding member of the punk band Carsickness, he was also part of that band’s second life as the Celtic-influenced Ploughman’s Lunch, before forming the sound-healing duo Life in Balance and, more recently, the…
An Act of God at Pittsburgh Public Theater
AN ACT OF GOD continues through July 2. Pittsburgh Public Theater, 621 Penn Ave., Downtown. $15.75-56. 412-316-1600 or ppt.org There’s a certain type of “religious” show — Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up?, The Book of Mormon, Nunsense, to name a few — that spends an act-and-a-half getting big yuks out of the…
New Releases: Maw Paw
Maw Paw Secret Music Self-Released www.mawpaw.bandcamp.com/album/secret-music Maw Paw’s Secret Music is a blend of progressive rock and indie melodies. It teeters between bright and spooky, with elements of heavy, down-tempo passages that induce headbanging, sandwiched between beautiful harmonies and clear, arpeggiated guitar work. Justin Endler’s vocals take a consonant heavy approach, adding a bassy quality;…
What can Pittsburgh, by itself, do on climate?
On June 1, President Donald Trump made headlines worldwide by withdrawing the U.S. from the historic Paris climate accord, a deal widely considered crucial for mitigating global warming; Trump said he’d been elected to “represent … Pittsburgh, not Paris.” Then, Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto made his own international headlines by rejecting the idea that Trump…
Critics Picks: Laura Mvula at August Wilson Center
[JAZZ/R&B] + THU., JUNE 15 If an artist is lucky enough to have been praised by Prince, it will inevitably follow her for the rest of her career. Laura Mvula, whom Prince once said he listened to before and after his shows, finds herself in that class. But while Prince’s recommendation is great, Mvula stands…
The Transfiguration
Writer-director Michael O’Shea’s debut film, The Transfiguration, is a coming-of-age horror story set in New York City. Its focus is teenage Milo (Eric Ruffin), who lives with his seemingly depressed older brother, and who is obsessed with vampires. Enough that Milo is attacking people and drinking their blood. The neighborhood toughs call him “freak,” and…
We Don’t Want This
I’m a girl. I’m a girl who plays video games. I don’t want to play a character dressed in a bikini. I don’t want to play a character with big boobs that jiggle in the wind, or defy gravity. I don’t want to play a character who has unrealistic spherical breasts. I don’t want to…
Proof at Little Lake Theater Co.
PROOF continues through June 24. Little Lake Theatre, 500 Lakeside Drive, North Strabane. $12-20. 724-745-6300 or littlelake.org A compact production and tight cast add up satisfactorily for Little Lake Theatre Co.’s Proof. David Auburn’s 2001 Pulitzer Prize- and Tony-winning family drama about doubt, insecurity and mathematics still resonates. Rest assured, you don’t need to know…
After the Storm
In this new low-key drama from Hirokazu Koreeda (Like Father, Like Son), a fractured Japanese family spends some time together (partly due to a rainstorm) and perhaps learns some things about themselves, each other and how to get along better. There’s the elderly granny, who doesn’t want to die with grievances unresolved; her feckless son…
Pittsburgh City Paper Booze Battles: Blue Moon vs. Tequila Cowboy
Each week, we order the same cocktail at two different bars for a friendly head-to-head battle. Go to the bars, taste both drinks and tell us what you like about each by tagging @pghcitypaper on Twitter or Instagram and using #CPBoozeBattles. If you want to be part of Booze Battles, email food-and-beverage writer Celine Roberts,…
Critics’ Picks: Nicole Atkins at South Park Amphitheater
[POP/SOUL] + FRI., JUNE 16 If you listen carefully to Nicole Atkins’ music, you can hear the different layers of influence. On songs like “Goodnight Rhonda Lee,” from her new album of the same name, there are hints of Loretta Lynn. On her cover of “Bye Bye Blackbird,” there’s a clear reference to John Coltrane.…
I, Daniel Blake
The Kafka-like bureaucracy of the welfare state complicates life for two well-intended but struggling working-class folk in Ken Loach’s new film (penned by his frequent collaborator Paul Lafferty). Recovering from a heart attack, carpenter Daniel (Dave Johns) is caught between medical disability and employment. There are the endless rounds on telephone hold; trips to the…
Short List: June 15-21
SPOTLIGHT: Fri., June 16 – Art Andy Warhol helped create the pop-culture era we live in, and his 1968 quote “In the future, everybody will be world-famous for 15 minutes” seems to have heralded reality TV and social media. But Warhol’s own relationship with celebrity began much differently. Growing up in smoky, industrial 1930s Pittsburgh,…
Two new books combine poetry and art
It’s natural that poetry, with its oft-emphasized imagery, and the visual arts, like painting and photography, would make for good collaborations. In 2013, New York’s Museum of Modern Art did just that by having a poet read in the museum’s galleries while visitors viewed the artwork. To quote MoMA’s website, “Visitors’ responses revealed that the…
My Cousin Rachel
Philip (Sam Claflin), due to inherit a country estate in 19th-century England from his recently deceased guardian, grows convinced that the man’s widow, his cousin Rachel, might have killed him. But he is nonetheless surprised and then entranced when Rachel (Rachel Weisz) arrives for a visit. Thus begins a mostly polite round of head games…
Sweet and spicy black-bean quesadillas
Growing up, I had some bizarre eating habits. I drank those little half-and-half cups straight. I took the cheese off pizza. I ate unskinned cucumbers whole without dressing. I had a mistrust of black beans so deep that I’d negotiate horrifically unfair deals with my brother to avoid washing dishes in which they’d been cooked.…
Critics’ Picks: Banks at Stage AE
[POP] + SAT., JUNE 17 If you believe in golden ages, then you might say we’re living in the golden age of alternative pop; there’s Lorde, Lana Del Rey, Perfume Genius. There’s also Banks, who, like a lot of her peers, sings dark and low, but remains accessible and endearing. The kind of sound you…
New York-based Southern Tier Brewing Company opens a gastropub on Pittsburgh’s North Side
Southern Tier Brewing Company 316 North Shore Drive, North Side. 412-301-2337 Hours: Sun.-Thu. 11 a.m.-10 p.m.; Fri.-Sat. 11 a.m.-midnight Prices: $6-15 Liquor: Full bar What with the tech companies, the press accolades and the gentrification — for better or for worse — Pittsburgh should be able to shed its inferiority complex at last. Still, it…
Critics’ Picks: The Ghost Wolves at Brillobox
[ROCK] + TUE., JUNE 20 The Ghost Wolves have a pretty solid band name, but it’s even better when you learn that the husband-and-wife duo’s last name is Wolf. Don’t get it twisted, though — these two aren’t on stage crooning love songs to each other, unless your version of a love song includes knives…
Three alcohol-themed weekend getaways
With school letting out and temperatures climbing, summer is officially in full swing. And that means, it seems, that every conversation turns to summer plans. For those of us who have booked glamorous beach escapes or cabins by the lake, that’s all well and good. But for those who have exhausted our credit cards and…
Peeking behind the curtain of Pittsburgh’s IT IT
IT IT with Thousandzz of Beezz, The Moon Baby, Spednar 9 p.m. Sat., June 17. Cattivo, 146 44th St., Lawrenceville. $5. 412-687-2157 or cattivopgh.com IT IT is the kind of band that lives in online obscurity. The band’s Facebook page features just one photo of the musicians. If you want to find its music online,…
