Correction: Farewell episode of Prosody to air at 4 p.m. Saturday
This week’s print edition of City Paper contained an incorrect time for the airing of the farewell episode of radio show Prosody. The half-hour show will air on WESA 90.5 FM at 4 p.m. this Saturday. Guests of host Jan Beatty will include poet Ed Ochester, original host John Schulman, and Pittsburgh’s best-known ex-cop/boxing trainer/poet,…
Madeleine Bakery and Bistro opens in Wilkinsburg
Madeleine Bakery and Bistro 609 S. Trenton Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 412-699-1385 website Madeleine Bakery and Bistro is the newest addition to local bakeries worth a morning visit. The venue is tucked into a cozy corner of Trenton Avenue and Union Street, in Wilkinsburg, in a turn-of-the-century-building that has lived many lives: as a market, recording…
Residents urge Port Authority to maintain service for bus routes in Mon Valley
Proposed changes coming with the BRT could reduce route 61 bus frequency and require additional costs for riders in the Mon Valley.
Trans-Siberian Orchestra brings laser-filled show to PPG Paints Arena
Photo highlights from the laser-filled Trans-Siberian Orchestra concert
How Pittsburgh finally funded its affordable-housing trust fund
After two years of uncertainty, Pittsburgh City Council finally funds the city’s affordable-housing fund by incrementally raising the city’s realty-transfer tax.
Shucking oysters with the “Million Oyster Man”
At Merchant Oyster Co., in Lawrenceville, Angelo Galioto is hard at work shucking oysters. With 45 years in the restaurant business under his belt, Angelo has learned a lot about oysters and about life. Sit back and enjoy a few stories from Angelo, and learn a little bit about how to shuck a few oysters…
Lynn Cullen Live – 12/21/17
Video Archive Audio Only Archive Stream or download the last 5 shows on the MP3 downloads page.
Lynn Cullen Live – 12/20/17
Video Archive Audio Only Archive Stream or download the last 5 shows on the MP3 downloads page.
New Local Release: Soft Gondola’s Where I Go
Soft Gondola Where I Go Cryptic Carousel softgondola.bandcamp.com It’s inevitable that when the winter chill kicks in and you find yourself staring down the end of the year, you’ll contemplate the year past and begin dreaming about the year to come. If you’re a giant empath, it can be an incredibly emotional time. Luckily for…
Five reasons the goats of Allegheny GoatScape made Pittsburgh a better place in 2017
What qualifies a person for Pittsburgher of the Year? As this was City Paper’s inaugural run, it took our staff some time to iron out what qualities we were looking for. Should it be a pattern of philanthropy and good will? Is it winning hockey games? Does the winner have to live in Pittsburgh, or…
Critics’ Pick: Ali Spagnola at Club Cafe
[POWER HOUR] + FRI., DEC. 22 The closer we get to the holidays, the more celebratory and/or stress drinking ensues. And if you’re going to get shitfaced, it’s best to do it in public, at a concert. Pittsburgh native and YouTube personality Ali Spagnola will play her Power Hour Show, a set of 60 one-minute…
Pittsburgh City PaperBooze Battles: Acacia vs. The Commoner
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 a part of Booze Battles, send an email to…
New Local Release: Tears of Joy’s Fat Money Summer
Tears of Joy Fat Money Summer Self-released tojpa.bandcamp.com Each of the four songs on Tears of Joy’s Fat Money Summer boasts a minimalist pop-rock sound centered around smart, tasteful drums and catchy clean riffs. The sound may be simple, but emotional music doesn’t always require bells and whistles. On Fat Money Summer, the band questions…
Savage Love
I am a 22-year-old Italian man, 100 percent straight, sensitive and sporty. I have been reading Savage Love for years in Internazionale. I have one question for you: Why do I always fall in love with lesbians? Why do I instantly fall in love with girls who have that something more in their eyes? Something…
New Local Release: townsppl’s twigs
townsppl twigs Self-released soundcloud.com/townsppl The music of townsppl is sweet, playful and quirky, the kind of tunes with melodies that get stuck in your head for weeks. Throughout twigs, townsppl (who is Alex Stanton) takes a folksy indie-pop approach to writing. Stanton’s vocals sound like a charmingly reserved Ezra Koenig, and the instrumentals he arranges…
Acorn brings elaborate culinary creations to Walnut Street in Shadyside
Acorn 5528 Walnut St., Pittsburgh, PA 412-530-5950 website Shadyside was once home to much of the city’s finest and most interesting dining, but now it almost feels like a statement for Chicago chef Scott Walton to choose it as the location for his unabashedly ambitious new restaurant, Acorn. At a time when Pittsburgh restaurant concepts…
Critics’ Pick: Family-Friendly Canned Food Drive at Spirit
[GOOD CAUSE] + THU., DEC. 21 Top-tier DJs, soup and interactive Andy Warhol exhibits convene tonight at Spirit for You Can Help: A Family-Friendly Canned Food Drive Party. Grab some non-perishables from your cabinet, throw in a few bucks, and enjoy a night of tunes from Pandemic Pete, Arie Cole, Jesley Snipes and Keebs. Channeling…
Darkest Hour
Darkest Hour Directed by Joe Wright Starring Gary Oldman, Ben Mendelsohn, Lily James Starts Fri., Dec. 22 In 2017, there were three new films about the World War II military evacuation at Dunkirk: Christopher Nolan’s experiential eponymous drama that zoomed in on the logistics of the troop transport; Their Finest, from Lone Scherfig, depicting a…
Critics’ Pick: Festivus 13 at Howlers
[FESTIVUS FOR THE REST OF US] + THU., DEC. 21 What’s better than Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa combined? A made-up holiday derived from Seinfeld revolving around an aluminum pole. Howlers will host its annual Festivus 13, billed as the “longest-running celebration of Sein-Culture in the ’Burgh.” This year’s musical lineup features bright-eyed punk from Endless…
Ferdinand
Blue Sky Studios excels at mediocrity. The animation outfit behind Rio and the Ice Age franchise has mostly safeguarded itself from creative challenges, thus creating two decades of children’s entertainment that’s more forgettable than offensive. While the studio is not without the occasional win — the first Ice Age movie was fun, and The Peanuts Movie…
Pittsburgh City Paper’s Pittsburgher of the year: Leon Ford
In 2012, Leon Ford was shot and paralyzed by a Pittsburgh police officer during a routine traffic stop. Police say he ran a stop sign and was detained because his name and appearance were similar to those of a man suspected of illegal activities. Three officers were on the scene at the time Ford was…
It’s been an eventful year for Pittsburgh blues rocker Matt Barranti
The Matt Barranti Band Memphis Send-Off Party 8:30 p.m. Fri., Jan. 12. Moondog’s, 378 Freeport Road, Blawnox. $5. 412-828-2040 or moondogs.us Matt Barranti remembers the first time he heard Foghat’s Fool for the City. He was in 11th grade, hanging out with his friend Danny, two doors down from the Barranti home in Venetia, Peters…
Critics’ Pick: Trans-Siberian Orchestra at PPG Paints
[X-MAS ROCK] + FRI., DEC. 22 What do you do when you want to get into the Christmas feeling, but don’t wanna ditch your rock ’n’ roll spirit? You go to an elaborate, laser-filled Trans-Siberian Orchestra concert at PPG Paints Arena. Even if you haven’t heard of TSO, you’ve probably at least heard its music…
Booking manager Mary Jo Coll is a pillar of the East End music scene.
“Find yourself in a heap of debt / Mama Jo give you a cigarette / Make sure you’re fed when the night is done / Good old Jo’s a Ma to everyone,” sing The Harlan Twins on the 2012 song “Mama Jo.” The local rock group recorded the song as a tribute to Mary Jo…
Allegheny City Market gets a pizza oven
Allegheny City Market 1327 Arch St., Pittsburgh, PA 412-321-4021 website For years, supermarkets have competed with restaurants by offering their own prepared meals. Even neighborhood stores have embraced the trend. Take Allegheny City Market. When Mike Mitchell bought it, in 2014, the Central North Side storefront was a deli with sandwiches. That’s all still there,…
Highlighting reader nominees for CP’s Pittsburgher of the Year honors
Earlier this month, City Paper asked for the public’s help in nominating local residents for our inaugural Pittsburgher of the Year Award. As you know by now, we awarded this honor to local activist and entrepreneur Leon Ford. However, we wanted to share some other nominations from our readers. Nominee: Kristee Cammack, founder and CEO…
After back-to-back mediocre seasons, the Pittsburgh Riverhounds are shaking things up for 2018
Don’t expect to see the same Pittsburgh Riverhounds come 2018. Pittsburgh’s professional soccer team is undergoing some pretty dramatic changes this offseason, including a new head coach, the loss of the team’s leading scorer, and adding 2,000 seats in a stadium expansion. This is good news for those who follow soccer in Pittsburgh closely, as…
Pittsburgh-based Lynda Schuster’s memoir of her life as a foreign correspondent and ambassador’s wife
Almost 30 years after leaving journalism, Lynda Schuster found herself telling a new story. But it wasn’t one about someone else’s life. For once, it was her own. “Through the years, people who have been close to me and knew my story had always said, ‘Oh my gosh, you should write a book about this,’”…
Pittsburgh City Paper’s Worst Pittsburgher of the Year: Tim Murphy
If there were an Olympic event for being an overall horrible person, Tim Murphy would have won gold, silver and bronze in 2017. And that’s why he has been named City Paper’s Worst Pittsburgher of the year. To qualify for this award, the recipient must be pompous, pious, slimy, smarmy, two-faced and hypocritical. Instead of…
This Week in Pittsburgh Sports History
December 21, 1947 The city’s first NFL playoff game kicks off at Forbes Field. The Steelers lose to the hated cross-state rival Eagles. December 23, 1972 The Steelers take on the Raiders in Pittsburgh’s first playoff game in 25 years. It’s also the day that one of the greatest plays in sports history took place…
Robert Gibb’s new poetry collection exhumes the past with bright clarity
Robert Gibb is having a hell of a year. With his poems already prominent lit-mag staples, he began 2017 with the release of After, his 11th collection and 2016 winner of the Marsh Hawk Press Poetry Prize. He’ll end 2017 by dropping his 12th collection, the beautifully imagistic Among Ruins (Notre Dame Press), winner of…
Blogger Granola
Not all treasured recipes were passed down from a Nonna, Nana or Gramma. While I have beloved recipes from my family, my granola recipe was found online, in a random woman’s blog. She shut it down a couple weeks after I started reading it so I’m glad I had copied the recipe — it’s delicious!…
Midnight Radio: A Christmas Story at Bricolage Production Co.
Bricolage’s delightful production of Midnight Radio: A Christmas Story brings the immortal Jean Shepherd’s holiday classic full circle. No, more like an upward spiral, to get three-dimensional about it. Hey, it’s the season for “begats,” right? Some genealogy is in order. Philip Grecian, in 2000, adapted the 1983 movie A Christmas Story for his stage…
CP’s Mike Wysocki has a few holiday gifts for Pittsburgh sports fans
Being deep into the holiday spirit this year, I wanted to give a few gifts to Pittsburgh sports fans. We especially need them after Sunday’s crappy loss to New England. For long-suffering Pirates fans, an exciting offseason. Baseball fans in New York are eager to see what Giancarlo Stanton can do at Yankee Stadium, Cards…
Macular at Wood Street Galleries
MACULAR continues through Dec. 31. Wood Street Galleries, 600 Wood St., Downtown. 412-471-5605 or woodstreetgalleries.org Macular, an exhibit at Wood Street Galleries by the internationally known Dutch art collective of the same name, features four room-sized kinetic light installations. The results range from contemplative to jarring. Somehow on the contemplative side, despite a sound component…
2017: Two bars gone, and one satisfying newcomer
Tina’s 4114 Main Street, Pittsburgh, PA website 2017 is drawing to a close, which means it’s time for me to look back at the year in drinks. Usually, I write about the new things, the bars and breweries that arrived on the scene. And though there were plenty of exciting openings this year, I want…
Remembering Pittsburgh historian Carol Peterson
Local historian Carol Peterson was Pittsburgh. She was an encyclopedia of knowledge about the city’s history, she loved the Pittsburgh Pirates, and after she passed away on Sunday, after a long battle with breast and lung cancer, people all over town joined together to post their condolences and celebrate her life. Among the postings was…
A look at Pittsburgh’s latest Climate Action Plan
Pittsburgh’s proposed new Climate Action Plan is certainly ambitious. Most broadly, it sets the goal of reducing the city’s greenhouse-gas emissions by 20 percent (from a 2003 baseline) by 2023; by 50 percent by 2030; and by 80 percent by 2050. The plan also proposes that by 2030, City of Pittsburgh governmental operations will run…
Short List: Dec 21-28
SPOTLIGHT: Thu., Dec. 21 – Outdoors Ice-skating outdoors is pretty much confined to a few months in winter, but this week it’s a recreation as good as any, and better than most. The region’s most accessible outdoor rinks include the venerable Schenley Park Skating Rink, where for $3-5 each (and just $3 more for skate…
Deep Eddy Ruby Red Grapefruit Flavored Vodka
“It tastes more like an infused vodka as opposed to a flavored one. It’s nice real-fruit flavor that’s easy to cocktail with.” Recommended by Sheila Geisler, bartender at Stuff’d Pierogi Bar Deep Eddy Ruby Red Grapefruit Flavored Vodka is available at Stuff’d Pierogi Bar.
Since President Donald Trump’s election, a grassroots uprising has grown in all corners of the Pittsburgh region, and women are leading the charge.
About 11 months after the election of President Donald Trump, Kitty Lagorio, of Peters Township in Washington County, finally found her mission. Lagorio, a lifelong Democrat, was dismayed by the 2016 election results. She looked inward; she blamed herself and her party for Hillary Clinton’s defeat. For weeks, Lagorio was depressed, but when some pissed-off…
