Got the Internetz blowin’ up
In case you haven’t been paying attention, Wiz Khalifa, despite (or perhaps because of) his parting of ways with Warner Bros., has been making some waves lately: the Allderdice grad was in last month’s XXL (“most charismatic” amongst that mag’s “Freshman Class” for the year) and his latest mixtape dropped today. As of the writing…
State Arts Funding
The Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council has called off a planned April 26 bus trip to Harrisburg to rally for more state funding for the arts. But there’s both good news and bad news about why. The good news is that Gov. Rendell’s proposed 2010-11 budget includes $10 million for the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts.…
Can’t get enough Tom Murphy nostalgia? Here’s the place to be tomorrow night
Seems like Tom Murphy’s name has been surfacing quite a bit in recent days. Null Space’s Chris Briem has launched a one-man campaign to enshrine some part of the former mayor’s legacy. And as noted here yesterday, there are apparently still plenty of people who want to be his friend. Is this just coincidence? Or…
Tom Murphy has friends after all (UPDATED)
In the past few months, you may have gotten a Facebook “friend” request from one Tom Murphy. And you may have assumed that the “Tom Murphy” in question was Pittsburgh’s former mayor. Apparently, many others did: Among the people listed as “friends” of the Tom Murphy Facebook page are such local pols as city councilors…
Wagner gets labor backing
At the David Lawrence Convention Center, where the state AFL-CIO is gathering for its annual convention, state auditor general Jack Wagner picked up a series of labor endorsements in his campaign for governor this morning. Beneath a projection screen that unfurled promotional images for tourists — a carousel, a jousting match at a Renaissance Festival,…
Monday Miscellany
A few quick political items while I try to put together the pieces after Santonio Holmes’ departure … If the prospect of a battle royale between Anthony Coghill and Pete Wagner doesn’t have you rushing to the barricades of the South Hills, the 19th Ward now offers progressives a useful outlet for their passions.…
MP3 MONDAY: Chalk Dinosaur
Novelist Vladimir Nabokov reportedly said, “Only ambitious nonentities and hearty mediocrities exhibit their rough drafts. It is like passing around samples of one’s sputum.” He may have overlooked another category: the blithely un-self-conscious, which is the general vibe I get from local power-pop band Chalk Dinosaur. Most Mondays, we offer readers one song by a…
Steelers trade strikes close to Holmes
I’ll have some political stuff here sometime in the near future, but first, a word about the Steelers’ decision to trade away Santonio Holmes. Full disclosure: I have a personal investment here — literally. I own a Holmes jersey. It was my sole birthday gift last year; those goddamn things are expensive. I got it…
Young Jean Lee’s The Shipment
I’d read several reviews and other accounts of this 2008 theater piece by this cult-favorite young playwright. Most were laudatory, but none quite did justice to either its multi-layered, highly detailed approach or just how confrontational — and brilliant — its take on race and racism is. The 90-minute play’s lone Pittsburgh staging was last…
Waking up with The Cynics
First thing this morning, I was greeted at the City Paper offices by members of garage-punk local legends The Cynics and representatives from Get Hip Records. In other words, by Michael Kastelic, Greg Kostelich and Barbara Garcia-Bernardo. I wasn’t fully awake yet and had no idea why they were here; they seemed to have been…
Back to the future with the Orie family
Courtesy of our pals at the Post-Gazette, we learn that an activist is calling on Supreme Court Justice Joan Orie Melvin to step down as a result of the charges filed against her sisters. Gene Stilp, a Harrisburg citizen activist and a Democrat running for the state House this year, filed a complaint today against…
Short List: Week of April 8 – 15
Young Jean Lee has called theater “our most backward art form,” and she’s spent her still-emerging career making it more adventurous. In 2007, Pittsburgh saw Songs of the Dragons Flying to Heaven, the Korean-born, American-raised Lee’s revenge on ethnic-identity plays. Songs’ collage of skits and bizarre musical numbers includes a monologue in which a girl…
Decisive Advantage
CMU’s Carey Morewedge is helping to drive a new era of research into how we make up our minds
Sewickley Hotel
An enjoyable “stay” for both time-honored and more modern dishes
A Town Called Panic
Stéphane Aubier and Vincent Patar’s feature is a herky-jerky stop-motion animation starring little plastic toys, the cheap molded sort that might come from a gumball machine. Horse, Cowboy and Indian share a home in a small farming community. Horse is working on getting to know a lady horse (who teaches music to barnyard animals), but…
The Runaways
Formed in 1975 and effectively imploding a couple years later, all-girl rockers The Runaways wound up in the odd no-man’s-land between the cultish glam-rock scene and the advent of punk. As such, the band likely garners more respect today, as pop music endlessly cycles back to reclaim all the minor players as visionaries, than it…
Above the Bar
A local experimental filmmaker turns fruitfully to drunken comedy.
Clash of the Titans
Louis Leterrier’s action adventure is based on the 1981 film of the same name, and both works draw from Greek mythology. Our hero, Perseus (Sam Worthington), gets caught up in a battle between man and gods, chiefly Zeus (Liam Neeson) and Hades (Ralph Fiennes). Thus, he embarks on a quest to restore order. As is…
The Hot Button
A look at this week’s intriguing issues — and why you should care
Union Labels
Despite NLRB decision, representation of arena works still questioned
Why progressives have such a hard time making progress, chapter 4,312
Here’s a post I’ve been kicking around for awhile, and now I have an excuse to write it. Early today, Brenda Frazier — a former county councilperson and longtime champion of the well-intentioned — came out with an endorsement in the race to replace Don Walko in the 20th legislative district. She’s backing Tim Tuinstra,…
‘Steelers Way’ Off
Can players’ recent legal troubles irreparably harm team’s storied reputation?
“The Electronic Negro” and “Sister Son/ji”
Sanchez weaves some lovely lines into the triumphs and agonies of her protagonist.
When January Feels Like Summer
A little sweetness can go a long way, but Thomas writes herself into a corner in the play’s climax.
Author Heather Terrell talks illuminated manuscripts, apocryphal gospels — and her novel Brigid of Kildare.
“[Mary] makes her will known, and these are things that would have spoken to Brigid, much as they would have spoken to a modern-day woman.”
“His whole career was about trying to make the world a better place — but I don’t know if it’s that obvious with him.”
Writer and area native Ben Corbett discusses his relationship with the late Hunter S. Thompson.
Exchange lets established and emerging artists trade up by working together.
It’s the in-depth collaborations that really pop the most.
This Just In: April 8 – 15
It’s Been a Long, Cold, Lonely Winter
Music-video course brings together Carnegie Mellon students and local musicians
“What’s really being represented, and what is it trying to get to you to desire?”
Guitarist David Fiuczynski debuts fusion trio with Dave Throckmorton and Tony Grey
“It’s groove-based stuff and funky electric jazz, which should appeal to jam kids as well as jazz-fusion fans.”
The Hold Steady brings rock ‘n’ roll problems to Diesel
“This is just what we wanted.”
Mi Ami combines caterwauls and grooves on new Thrill Jockey release
The cover of Steal Your Face actually says a good deal about them, even though it looks like a stolen image of Bob Marley.
A Conversation with Owen Pallett
“I just had this really submissive attitude toward myself as a musician.”
Carnegie Mellon MFA students Escape PGH in style.
In an unorthodox request, Trueblood coaxes us to take the fun of the action thriller as seriously as he has.
Savage Love
I’m a young, straight, feminist male, and I’ve been dating my girlfriend for almost two years. Recently, I’ve been coming to terms with the fact that I am turned on by rape fantasies. Of course, I find the idea of actual rape repugnant, and this is probably a reason why fantasizing about it turns me…
Kopec’s
3523 Penn Ave., Lawrenceville. 412-683-4190 or www.myspace.com/kopecs Hours: Mon.-Fri., 11 a.m.-last call; Sat.-Sun., noon-last call Date Visited: April 1, 2010. Years in Business: Forever. As old smoky watering-holes give way to cantinas and discothèques, Kopec’s is one of the last of Lawrenceville’s shot-and-a-beer dives. (A post on Kopec’s MySpace page indicates that it’s for…
