Harris and Acklin Square Off (with video!)
I’ve been a little remiss in keeping up with the doings of our two third-party candidates for mayor: Franco “Dok” Harris and Kevin Acklin. It’s not for lack of trying on their part: Acklin, for example, recently toured Beechview to bemoan the lack of progress in the long-neglected South Hills neighborhood. Harris’ campaign, meanwhile, has…
Sympathy for the Diva?
Like everyone else on the Internet, I guess, I feel obliged to offer my thoughts on the great PittGirl outing story. But there’s been so much said about this already that I’ll try to keep it short. (Short for me, anyway.) 1) I have a lot of respect for Virginia Montanez’s decision to out herself.…
MP3 Monday: Gramsci Melodic
A few months back, Gramsci Melodic released its first album, which I wrote about here. The band, fronted by Martin Rubeo, dances around the outskirts of the territories of pop-rock, jam, and political rock. One of Gramsci’s catchiest tunes, and one that’s been picked up for radio play on WYEP, is “Wong,” the first track…
Mysteries of the Great Lakes at Carnegie Science Center
The first IMAX movie I ever saw, some 25 years ago, was about skydiving. But quite a few of these large-format spectacles have taken up themes of nature and the environment. Perhaps it’s something about how the domed screen suggests the sky. In any case, my second IMAX was about beavers (10-foot incisors, comin’ at…
Espresso A Mano
A new Lawrenceville java joint focuses on pleasing coffee purists with quality and simplicity.
Meeting of Important People re-release album through Authentik Artists label
“I just decided to bang on every door and call every contact that I’d ever made, and really give it a try.”
Savage Love
I just turned 20 and have been out of the closet for a year. A lesbian friend wants to hook me up with her gay friend — let’s call him Kyle — a cute, fit boy who runs track and does theater. The issue is, he’s just 17 and starting his senior year in high…
If you outlaw protest, only outlaws will have protests
Just got back from a press conference at Point State Park, where a sizable group of lefties — representing various causes ranging from labor to environmental to antiwar causes — voiced concerns about the lead-up to the G-20 summit this September. There will be daily-type coverage elsewhere. But a few points by way of summary: …
Short List: Week of August 20 – 27
Thu., Aug. 20 — Biking The concluding weekend of Bike Pittsburgh’s annual BikeFest approaches. Today, events include Free Ride’s Mobile Bike Repair Project hitting the Wilkinsburg’s Farmers Market (3-6 p.m.). Tonight, try bike polo in Bloomfield (6 p.m.); a Hash House Harriers “hare-and-hound” bike ride (6:30 p.m., location TBD); or a training ride (complete with…
How Flus Fly
This year’s H1N1 outbreak made news all spring, but has faded from headlines as new U.S. infections plummeted. Experts say that’s not unusual: Previous pandemics have likewise seasonally set in, slowed down and roared back. Influenza doesn’t spread as easily in the summer, but the fall’s combination of cooler, drier weather and people returning to…
H1N1 Prevention Tips
H1N1 influenza is predicted to be everywhere this fall, but keeping yourself — and those around you — healthy is a fairly low-tech job, experts say. Like most influenza viruses, H1N1 is spread through coughs and sneezes, and sometimes from touching a surface an infected person has coughed or sneezed on. To Avoid Infection…
Sick Days
Yes, H1N1 is coming, and it could be trouble. But experts say we shouldn’t let panic infect us, too.
The Time Traveler’s Wife
Love affairs are hard to keep on track, and even more so when one lover is also an involuntary time-traveler, apt to just disappear and re-appear at any point before, during or after the relationship. This is the central … uh … quirk of Henry and Clare’s otherwise blissful time together (pretty houses, lovely linens,…
Mysteries of the Great Lakes
The point of this film is actually no mystery: The five lakes that contain nearly one-fifth of the earth’s fresh water have been “systematically ravaged” by pollution and overfishing. The film is structured around efforts to save the lake sturgeon, a 150 million-year-old species driven to the edge of extinction by a single century of…
Il Divo
Paolo Sorrentino’s 2008 film is a nervy, stylized bio-pic of Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti. Foreknowledge of contemporary Italian politics is admittedly useful for fully appreciating Il Divo, but this is an arena where the broad strokes are universally familiar — corruption, gamesmanship, self-delusion — and Sorrentino’s directorial flair is frequently arresting. Also, Toni Servillo…
The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard
They left off “Die Hard.” It’s only August, but this is already a clear favorite for Worst Movie of the Year. Neal Brennan’s comedy about a crack team of car salesmen sure isn’t funny. In fact, its real value is probably as a study in how to blow every possible comic opportunity. I see important…
Revanche
After a bank robbery goes badly, the lives of five somewhat disconnected Austrians are interwoven in Götz Spielmann’s meditative, Oscar-nominated thriller. Revanche isn’t a crime thriller so much as a character study designed to let us see what informs the life-altering decisions each character makes. Some actions are commonplace and spurred by a benign impulse,…
Inglourious Basterds
Tarantino loves the movies too much, and he’s one of a generation of kinetic cinephiles who’s helped to corrupt serious American cinema by tricking people into thinking he creates it. That’s why I admire this film’s opening – the strongest sequence in his oeuvre so far — because it focuses strongly on story, character, dialogue…
Yo Rita
This East Carson Street venue offers Mexican-inspired cuisine unlike anything else in the city
Comedian Hal Sparks gets retro … and topical.
“It went from being the Information Age to the Stare At Your Neighbor Through The Window Age.”
Morphous
A poem by Victoria Dym
Open Stage Theatre goes homeless … and on hiatus.
“To become itinerant without a plan … just seemed like a big step backwards.”
Medea
Consider this no simple museum visit, because timeless themes are skillfully made to emerge.
The Cocktail Hour
Thanks to this very sturdy South Park Theatre production, Cocktail Hour is a very enjoyable way to spend a couple of hours.
Pittsburgh n’@
More Craziness, This Time in Pittsburgh I’ve only [visited] Pittsburgh, but I had a really good time. It definitely fulfills the Tourism Department’s slogan, “Pittsburgh: It’s Not as Bad as it Used to Be!” Seriously, though, I experienced no noticeable pollution, it was mostly compact and walkable, the trolleys were cool, and it was…
This Just In: August 20 – 27
Highlights from the local TV news: KDKA’s tailgating traffic report
Model City
Director turns trash into massive mock metropolis for video
Women and Girls Power
Foundation’s grant program hopes to top ‘girlcott’ campaign
Block Party
Community group emerges to challenge apartment complex
Haunting Specter
Five-term senator is working hard to cut ties with his GOP past
Booking a Loss
Libraries facing program cuts as funding shortfall looms
News Sensation
G-20 scare stories continue to pile on as gathering approaches
’90s alt-stars The Breeders play Diesel, supporting DIY EP Fate to Fatal
Since that nine-year pause between albums, it seems the tunes have kept coming, if not much faster.
Brooklyn trio Vivian Girls plays the Warhol Museum
Far from naïve and angelic, Vivian Girls present a view of the world that’s playfully jaded, pleasantly cynical.
Step into the surreal, unnerving world of James Duesing’s animations.
Consistency and intelligibility take a backseat to the disjointed procession of the animator’s dreamlike imaginings.
