Macy Gray woos a mass crowd at Hartwood Acres
Macy Gray played Hartwood Acres last night and was met by a welcoming lawn full of fans. Situated in the 629 acres of the park, Gray took the stage at the park’s amphitheater and played to a hillside packed with concert-goers. Backed by a full band (guitar, keys, bass and drums), Gray, in shimmering silver…
Copacetic hosts NYC comics artists
Signing by Katie Skelly, Meghan Turbitt
Experts say Pittsburgh triathletes exposed to unsafe levels of fecal bacteria
When around 200 triathletes started plunging into the Allegheny River at 6:45 a.m. Sunday, a chart posted by race organizers near the starting line suggested the water quality was improving. But the chart’s data was 24 hours out of date. And the state Department of Environmental Protection said today the actual level of bacteria in…
Following “Transformers vs. G.I. Joe,” comics artist offers workshop
Top local comics artist Tom Scioli, who’s been busy reinventing marquee superhero titles, holds a workshop Downtown this Saturday. Ian Thomas has details — and a close look at “Transformers vs. G.I. Joe” — in Program Notes.
Comic creator Tom Scioli takes on Transformers and GI Joe
The Pittsburgh-based writer and artist leads a workshop on comics Saturday via the Cultural Trust
Free show tonight at Get Hip
Get Hip Recordings! is hosting a free show tonight at its label headquarters. The “Teenage Garage Explosion” will feature Blawnox’s Nox Boys, Detroit’s Blaire Alise & The Bombshells and Chase The Monkey. The first two bands are signed to Get Hip. (In the interest of full disclosure, CP music editor Andy Mulkerin’s band Neighbours had…
“Alternate Classics” Script Series Debuts
Classically bad films get their literary due in artist’s books
The Talking Cure
On July 30, hundreds of protesters shut down a block of Grant Street in front of UPMC’s Downtown headquarters. There were chants of “$15 in a union!” and nearly 30 arrests of those who sat in the middle of the street, blocking traffic. The scene, and the complaints, were familiar: UPMC has been dogged by…
Savage Love
I am a 38-year-old woman. My husband of 18 years is 22 years my senior. I credit my husband for giving me a good life and helping me pursue goals. But he’s a type-A professional, and that has played out in the bedroom. He has always been disinterested in my pleasure. When our kids were…
Stuff We Like
Great White Shark film. Shark Week is nigh, so why not treat yourself to a huge shark on the Omnimax screen at the Carnegie Science Center? Beautiful — and educational. Screens daily. www.carnegiesciencecenter.org Steel City Con. Once the little pop-culture con-that-could, this show has been growing steadily and now offers top-line convention guests. The Aug.…
An exhibit at the Warhol traces the parallels between Andy and fashion icon Halston
HALSTON AND WARHOL: SILVER AND SUEDE continues through Aug. 24. The Andy Warhol Museum, 117 Sandusky St. North Side 412-237-8300 or warhol.org In 1973, acclaimed fashion columnist and editor Diana Vreeland became a Special Consultant to the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. There, she single-handedly transformed the rarified world of costume display…
Short List: August 6 – 14
SPOTLIGHT: Fri., Aug. 8 — Festival Ten years ago, Bike Pittsburgh had maybe 300 members. Today, says spokesperson Ngani Ndimbie, it’s got 2,600 — growth that reflects both the city’s embrace of cycling and the advocacy group’s own success. In July, the group welcomed 4,000 visitors Downtown for the inaugural Open Streets Pittsburgh, a one-day,…
Dammit, I Learned a Lot From That Son-of-a-Gun tells local stories of hard knocks
It makes sense that Dammit, I Learned a Lot From That Son-of-a-Gun began with the title. As Anita Kulina, the book’s publisher, says, “I’ve always loved movies with sentence titles, like I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang. That way you really know what you’re getting into.” Kulina, a writer herself and graduate-program coordinator…
Burgh’ers
Burgh’ers 100 Perry Highway, Harmony. 724-473-0710 Hours: Mon.-Thu. 11 a.m.-9 p.m.; Fri.-Sat. 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Prices: $3-13 Liquor: Full bar Back when fancy burger joints were the hot new thing, we heard there was a sizzlin’ place up near Harmony. But with so many burger-centric establishments barely farther away than our backyard grill, that seemed…
No Exit at bubble:PGH
NO EXIT continues through Sat., Aug. 9. bubble:PGH at Flagstaff Hill Schenley Park. Oakland. $10 bubblepgh.com Recently, Carnegie Mellon School of Art students Max Hawkins and Robb Godshaw designed and built a giant white plastic bubble held up only by the output of a large air-blower. Not about to let a good thingamajig go to…
Drunken Botanist author comes to town
According to Amy Stewart, author of The Drunken Botanist, just about everything in your cocktail (except the water) was once a plant. “I’m telling the story behind the plants in what you drink,” she says. Stewart, who has also written books on Wicked Bugs and Wicked Plants, visits Pittsburgh as the inaugural guest of the…
In the new Quantum show, you follow the actors around a big building
TAMARA Aug. 7-Sept. 14. Quantum Theatre at Rodef Shalom Congregation 4905 Fifth Ave. Oakland. $56-100. 412-362-1713 or quantumtheatre.com The recent trend toward theater productions that let audiences choose among multiple scenes, or when to see them, isn’t exactly new. This week, Quantum Theatre presents the Pittsburgh premiere of a pioneering 1981 play arguably more ambitious…
A new food stand in Hazelwood helps residents and commuters pick up fresh fruit and vegetables
“Blueberries,” “Peaches” and “Fresh! Local Sweet Corn,” read the signs posted along Second Avenue in Hazelwood. The hand-lettering announces Dylamato’s Market, a 16-foot-long converted hay wagon that began selling produce July 10. Hazelwood is a food desert, with no grocery store and just one half-day-a-week farmstand. Dylamoto’s is the brainchild of Dianne Shenk, a former…
David Bernabo captures local artists at work in his new documentary Ongoing Box
Ongoing Box Directed by: David Bernabo 8 p.m. Thu., Aug. 14. Melwood Screening Room, Oakland. $8. Musician, composer, filmmaker and performer David Bernabo is plenty busy with his own art. But recently, he spent nine months exploring the creative processes of eight other Pittsburgh artists. The result is the feature-length documentary Ongoing Box, which gets…
Guardians of the Galaxy
I’m not a comic-book reader, so I generally find the film adaptations of various superhero franchises to be somewhere between confusing (for lack of background knowledge) and tedious (too much mindless action). So I wasn’t expecting much from Guardians of the Galaxy, a Marvel title I’d never even heard of. But James Gunn’s action-adventure-comedy turned…
The Hundred-Foot Journey
An Indian family moves to a small French town and opens a restaurant across the road from a fine-dining joint run by the imperious Madame Mallory (Helen Mirren). Will Madame melt for budding chef Hassan’s (Manish Dayal) sublime curries? He’s already won the tastebuds of charmant sous chef Magritte (Charlotte Le Bon). Can lonely widower…
New app brings site-specific music to North Side walkers
DIGITAL SANCTUARIES PITTSBURGH APP LAUNCH. Composer-led tours at 11 a.m. and 6 p.m., Thu., Aug. 7-Sat., Aug. 9. Free; reservation required. Bring smartphone and headphones; limited number of devices available for those without smartphones. 412-323-0278 or cityofasylumpittsburgh.org Many music-lovers have experienced it: You’re walking somewhere, or even driving in your car, and the music you’re…
Listeners color within the lines on Hospitality’s new album
HOSPITALITY with FRANKIE COSMOS, PORCHES. 7 p.m. Thu., Aug. 7. Club Café, 56 S. 12th St. South Side. $12. 412-431-4950 or clubcafelive.com Hospitality’s debut album was one of 2012’s brightest releases, full of chiming guitars and some studio trimmings, and topped off with Amber Papini’s lyrical outlook that seemed to vividly encompass a handful of…
SoFar Sounds brings music to local living rooms
On a late-July night in Pittsburgh, a lot of music fans were on the North Side, taking in Jack White’s outdoor show. But a few dozen were across the river, in a rather tony Gateway Towers condominium, enjoying something else: the first iteration of SoFar Sounds Pittsburgh, a new chapter of a global house-show series.…
Critics’ Picks: August 7 – 13
[R&B] SUN., AUG. 10 She tries to say goodbye and she chokes. She tries to walk away and she stumbles. She may try, but Macy Gray can’t stay away. If you haven’t been keeping up, the singer and songwriter has in fact released music after her debut album On How Life Is, which featured the…
New Releases
Joe Matzzie This Box Makes Noise (U.S. Records) Singer-songwriter rock from a former Pittsburgher, now living in Los Angeles. Nice stuff here; Matzzie’s gritty vocals — sometimes bordering on a harsh whisper — are pleasant to hear, and his songwriting is better than many. Matzzie excels on rock tunes like “Run to the Beach”; the…
Classroom Experiment
When Pittsburgh’s Milliones 6-12 school building opened in 2008, classrooms were named after prominent universities, and the halls were hung with college banners from schools like Notre Dame, Howard, Temple and Duke. The decor reflected the Hill District school’s status as a “university preparatory” program, specially designed to send city kids on to higher education.…
Lynn Cullen Live 08/06/14
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