Universal Themes
Larchuk, 49, isn’t waiting for the Democrats or Republicans to add it to their platforms this summer. Universal health care — medical coverage for everyone, paid through a dedicated government fund fueled by taxes — is practically the only thing on the platform of the new American HealthCare Party, formed in Western Pennsylvania with the…
Trigger Unhappy
The Confluence coalition includes the local NAACP, the Thomas Merton Center, Pennsylvanians Against Handgun Violence and others. “Most of the NRA members are wonderful people who support the responsible handling of guns,” said Kenny Steinberg, president of PAHV, in announcing the weekend’s Confluence events. “My message to the NRA membership: Wake your leadership up. Let’s…
Slurring Up Controversy
A now-infamous cartoon in the April Fool’s Day issue of Carnegie Mellon University’s student-run newspaper, The Tartan, featuring a joke about hitting a “nigger” with a car, couldn’t have come at a worse time for the paper. Not only was the paper’s staff in the midst of talks with SPIRIT, the campus African-American cultural organization,…
Rodents that Move Buildings May Lose Homes
Vermin worried about a quick solution to Pittsburgh’s budget mess need twitch no more. The city’s four-man rodent control team was disbanded in last summer’s layoffs, and there are no imminent plans for a reunion, says city Public Works Director Guy Costa. Instead, the city is tacking rodent control on to the lot cleanup…
Bush League
“Hotbed of Resistance: An Iraqi Discusses Fallujah Violence.” There are plenty of reasons to be appalled by the March 31 murder and mutilation of four U.S. contractors in Fallujah. One is the U.S. military’s previous fighter plane-aided attempts to rout out the resistance there, including mass detentions and the bombing of villages. Amy Goodman of…
A conversation with Jeff “Holly’s Dad” Smith
How’d you get this gig? Holly’s my daughter and she’s a 20-year-old who lives up in Shadyside. Probably a year ago when Holly was on the Internet on a message board, I was sitting there working. She had started a thread where everyone could ask me questions. It was a running joke. That was the…
When the Port Authority takes delivery of new buses, what happens to the old ones?
It’s a painful question: “Where do buses go when they die?” And I hope parents will talk with their children before letting them see this article. If they pester you for information, feel free to show them the escort ads in the back until you’re ready. But when the time comes, you can…
The Frames
Dublin songwriter-rockers The Frames are a rather amazing story. From Grafton Street busker to stadium headliner, singer/guitarist/songwriter Glen Hansard has taken the Irish tradition of melancholy-yet-uplifting rock songwriting from its meager origins to ecstatic new heights on records like 2001’s brilliant For The Birds. But The Frames’ story, like their songs, might be viewed as…
Telefon Tel Aviv
With Map of What Is Effortless, Telefon Tel Aviv’s sophomore release on Chicago’s Hefty Records, multi-instrumentalists and laptop-production duo Joshua Eustis and Charles Cooper have crafted next-level compositions that ooze with emotion and a haunting sense of vacancy. The dark undercurrents on Map of …conjure images of cold, rain-drenched nights and lonely, introspective strolls.…
Robot Stories
One day, when machines finally take over, the question of what it means to be human in an age of overwhelming technology will be moot. Until then, artists will continue to ponder whether machines help or hinder humanity, how replaceable we are, and how “human” a machine can be or become. Such are the…
Hellboy
There are a lot of comic-book movies. The idea of a body of previously conceived characters, a built-in following, and a source material that functions as both a storyboard and piece of tie-in merchandise, is like a movie pitch on a platter. Or, at the very least, is quite likely to supply a snappy-sounding title.…
Hellboy
There are a lot of comic-book movies. The idea of a body of previously conceived characters, a built-in following, and a source material that functions as both a storyboard and piece of tie-in merchandise, is like a movie pitch on a platter. Or, at the very least, is quite likely to supply a snappy-sounding title.…
Walking Tall
Chris Vaughn (The Rock), fresh from the Special Forces, returns after several years’ absence to his Washington state hometown. The lumber mill has been shuttered, and Vaughn’s old nemesis, Jay Hamilton Jr. (Neal McDonough), now owns the town’s only industry — a neon-lit cashbox of a casino. The townsfolk are alternately bummed out or on…
The Battle Hymn of the Republicans
So this is how Republicans feel when they watch our primaries. Usually in these weeks before the spring primary, Democratic candidates for public office are beating the tar out of each other in TV ads and news stories. Meanwhile, the lone Republican nominee has already been chosen — in dark GOP rituals that involve…
De-versified Cinema
You can call the films of Brian Dean Richmond beautiful if you want. Just don’t call them “poetic.” Richmond’s heard the term used more than once to describe his (and other people’s) short experimental works, which favor visual exploration over telling stories, or at least telling them in conventional ways. For one of…
Trade Deficit
Black veils of diesel smoke trail the buses as they pull up at 10th and Carson outside South Vo-Tech High School. On the sidewalk, bits of grit and paint teeter on Robert Hongenecker’s eyelashes, although longish strands of dark-blond hair might yet sweep them out. “Can’t you see how dirty he is?” teases Sabrina…
The Girl Next Door
This raunchy teen comedy from Luke Greenfield is like all those erectile dysfunction ads on TV: I’d just rather not know, thank you very much. And after decades of lame teen sex-romp films, do we really need another look into the febrile minds of the Hollywood yahoos who unspool these endless loops of their juvenile…
No Food for Thought
It’s been three months since Bryant lost her job cleaning Downtown’s Centre City Tower, and her 26 weeks of unemployment is nearly halfway up. Could be worse, she says. Still, on April 5 Bryant started going hungry by choice, and says she intends to fast until she and her eight co-workers are given their jobs…
CP Fashion
Greta Polo and Tony PataGoing NativeTaylor MadeOakland Catholic High SchoolThrowbacks Thrown Way BackLate-Term Absorption More:Fashion (In Pittsburgh) Spread 1Fashion (In Pittsburgh) Spread 2 CREDITSPhotographer: Heather MullStylist: Michelle PacisMake Up: Vanessa GermanModels, From Xpressions Contemporary Dance Company:Leigha MabenNoel Martinez Mollie McClelland Albert Mundy Sharon Scuoteguazza Staycee R. Walters Stores:Diondega (Jennie Canning, Heidi Roberts, Liz Barrois)812 Western…
