“Barrel Man,” Part 2
This is the second part of Dan Arp’s four-part story about Leonard, whose troubled mother has urged him to leave Pittsburgh, where he’s in a sexually ambivalent relationship with his dance teacher, Sarah, to come home to Houston — all so he can attend a rodeo with his estranged parents. The first installment of the…
Carnegie Mellon sideswipes Side Show.
In a weird way, I’m almost giddy to write this review of the Bill Russell and Henry Krieger musical Side Show, now at CMU in a production directed by Rajendra Ramoon Maharaj. For me, writing a review is an experience in ambivalence in which I juggle what I know about the production, the actors, the…
Tall Union Tries Venti Organization of Starbucks
A national campaign to organize the coffee giant and protest the firing of five New York baristas, allegedly for union activity, arrives here.
Profit From Non-Profit?
The deed to a North Side halfway house includes a provision barring the sale of the building until 2037.
Stories Clash in Contentious Police Stop
The case of Pamela Lawton, which has led to demands for greater oversight of city police, is no clearer after a preliminary review.
Letters to the Editor: Dec. 6 – 13
Clearing the air on clean-up efforts On behalf of the PA CleanWays Board of Directors, I would like to thank City Paper for covering a story that is not often talked about [“This City Is a Dump!” Nov. 30]. Illegal dumping is an environmental crime, and we are proud to play a leading role in…
No News is Fake News
All sides are saying less and less about the labor negotiations between the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s ownership, Toledo-based Block Communications Inc., and the daily’s nine unions, whose contracts end on Dec. 31. The quiet may be a positive sign. But union leaders also say they’re making plans to take their views public if negotiations collapse. “I…
The Ex: 27 years of Dutch art-punk
The band’s openness has made The Ex’s penchant for collaboration and musical diversity legendary.
Local releases from Shade and The Gothees
“Bubblegoth” is how The Gothees describe their music — though it’s almost more of a musicological experiment disguised as a band: Where does ’60s and ’70s bubblegum meet goth?
Quiet Storm, a local mainstay, unplugs music
No more will the Cubano sandwich and the gyro burrito live in harmony with rock ‘n’ roll. The reason? Renovations to three apartments attached to the rear of the venue.
Dance Alloy Theater revives two favorites.
Choreographer David Shimotakahara “told us to picture what the Jerry Springer television show would look like if [Shimotakahara] choreographed it.”
Theremin virtuoso Eric Ross visits The Warhol
Ross’ odyssey came full circle in 1991, when he met and performed for Leon Theremin himself.
Terry Gilliam’s Tideland comes in, and it’s dark.
Gilliam is habitually free with the lens, but here it is positively, madly, joyously anchorless: floating, fisheyed, drunkenly lurching as if attempting to rationalize what’s senseless.
A Celebration of New Orleans Music at Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild
Not only do the artists represent the city’s music with vigor and history, but together, they tell the story of musicians’ post-Katrina struggles.
Blood Diamond
There’s requisite action scenes and battles, but in Blood Diamond, they’re backlit by the country’s chief resource: diamonds.
UUBU6
An old social hall has been converted to serve our generation’s finest communal function: fine dining in a funky atmosphere.
Unknown
Call it Reservoir Dogs meets Memento meets a twist on Stockholm Syndrome, with some climactic surprises.
Graphic Account
Macedonia is literally new terrain for American Splendor author Harvey Pekar. How did Ed Piskor go from drawing comics in his parents’ Munhall basement to standing alongside the likes of R. Crumb as an illustrator for comics icon Harvey Pekar? By being fast, cheap and good (not necessarily in that order). In 2004, Piskor met…
Results from the 29-hour Film Frenzy, and the documentary “Portrait of a Campaign,” screen at Film Kitchen.
The surreal pseudo-narrative climaxes with a waterfall of white paper and a dramatic shot up through a brick passageway to blue sky.
Macedonia is literally new terrain for American Splendor author Harvey Pekar.
“I’m a writer and I get carried away maybe,” admits Pekar.
No Surprise
Bill O’Reilly is beside himself with glee: Air America has filed for bankruptcy. I once applied for a job at Air America, the lefty radio talk network featuring the likes of Al Franken and Janeane Garofalo. The guy in charge of hiring liked my stuff. Then he got fired. (That happens a lot in broadcasting.)…
A Conversation with Joseph Wilk
Joseph Wilk, 24, is a library assistant and teen specialist helping to make the Teen Room at Oakland’s Carnegie Library a proactive, inclusive and engaging space — by going beyond books and offering amenities such as video games, talking and Dance Dance Revolution. Wilk is also penning a guidebook, due out next fall, to help…
IUP Makes a Substitution
Just about an hour’s drive from Pittsburgh, in the birthplace of one of the finest American actors of his generation, an imbroglio about a school mascot is nearing its conclusion. On Dec. 15, Indiana University of Pennsylvania will present its board of trustees with a new nickname and mascot for its sports teams. If the…
Signal To Noise
Never seen anything quite like Brazilian Girls at the Rex last Friday, and it seemed like some of the crowd — those few hanging around the back — hadn’t either. I mean, Pittsburghers at a rock show grooving to dubby, cheerfully X-rated odes to the female body? Too good to be true. The sound system…
Multicultural Celebration of Visual Traditions fails to define its terms
How does it make sense to talk about contemporary work as a continuation of traditions?
Savage Love
My boyfriend and I are currently doing the long-distance thing, as I’m finishing up some schooling. About two months ago, during some dirty phone talk, he said he’d been masturbating while thinking about me fucking another man while he watches. This was unexpected. In the past, I screwed around on boyfriends. He knows this, but…
The deer in West Park has been around since I was a kid. What can you tell me about it?
Not much, considering that this unassuming statue is one of Pittsburgh’s oldest and most beloved works of art. Discovering Pittsburgh’s Sculpture, perhaps the definitive catalogue of Pittsburgh public art, dates the statue to the 1870s, and suggests that this piece — known not-too-imaginatively as “Deer” — “may be considered one of the first public pieces…
Quantum Theatre parties with El Paso Blue.
If El Paso Blue is a sprawling, disjointed play, it’s a highly entertaining one.
David Griffith considers Abu Ghraib in light of Pulp Fiction, Flannery O’Connor — and a Halloween party in Friendship.
When “Graner” conscripted a passerby to pull a hood over his head, and asked Griffith to join him in a thumbs-up Polaroid tableau, the faux Kirk complied.
Pittsburgh Playwrights investigates Corps Values.
You can’t get more “here’s what’s happening now” than Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company’s local premiere of Brendon Bates’ Iraq-themed drama/thriller Corps Values. On a homestead in Dawson County, we meet up with Wade Taylor, a Vietnam veteran and father of Casey Taylor, currently a Marine fighting in Iraq but home on leave to attend his…
