Free Will Astrology
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): What themes and instruments do people least want to hear in a piece of music? Composer Dave Solder determined that the worst song ever made would contain bagpipes, cowboy music, tubas, advertising jingles, operatic rapping, and children crooning about holidays. Then he collaborated with other musicians to record such a song.…
Just announced: new shows coming to Pittsburgh in 2019
See what local and national acts are performing in 2019
Holiday Movie Advent Day 25: Santa Jaws
In the spirit of the holiday season, Pittsburgh City Paper presents a holiday movie advent calendar. One holiday movie review, every day ’til Christmas (today). Thanks for reading. It’s over now. It had to end somewhere, so why not with a crudely animated great white shark in a Santa hat? The SyFy original movie Santa…
Holiday Movie Advent Day 24: Second Chance Christmas
In the spirit of the holiday season, Pittsburgh City Paper presents a holiday movie advent calendar. One holiday movie review, every day ’til Christmas (probably). After six years of marriage, Caroline (Katrina Begin), a successful woman with an event planning business, is ready to call it quits with her husband Jack (Tilky Jones), an unemployed…
Leon Ford is ready for his City Council run
A year after being named Pittsburgh City Paper’s Pittsburgher of the Year in 2017, Leon Ford’s advocacy for his hometown hasn’t slowed. This year, however, his career arc took an unexpected turn: political candidate. Ford, who was shot by Pittsburgh Police when he was 19 after a routine traffic stop, settled a lawsuit with the…
Holiday Movie Advent Day 23: A Christmas in New York
In the spirit of the holiday season, Pittsburgh City Paper presents a holiday movie advent calendar. One holiday movie review, every day ’til Christmas (probably). If you’re a fan of analyzing movies, or someone studying film, A Christmas in New York is the perfect holiday movie to dissect. The 2016 romance follows six diverse couples…
Holiday Movie Advent Day 22: A Christmas Prince 2
In the spirit of the holiday season, Pittsburgh City Paper presents a holiday movie advent calendar. One holiday movie review, every day ’til Christmas (probably). Last year, Netflix joined the Corny Christmas Movie complex for the first time with A Christmas Prince, a nonsense rom-com about a journalist who falls for the Prince of Aldovia,…
Holiday Movie Advent Day 21: Holiday Engagement
In the spirit of the holiday season, Pittsburgh City Paper presents a holiday movie advent calendar. One holiday movie review, every day ’til Christmas (probably). Holiday Engagement has to be one of the only movies where Pittsburgh is referred to as a city of elite opportunity. Now, I love the Steel City, but not because…
Wendy Bell hired at KDKA radio and Pittsburghers are … ambivalent
After some controversial comments made in 2016 following the Wilkinsburg mass shooting, former WTAE anchor Wendy Bell was fired. Before police released any information the perpetrators, Bell alleged, without evidence, that the shooters were “young black men, likely teens or in their early 20s” and that they had “multiple siblings from multiple fathers and their…
Lynn Cullen Live – 12/21/18
Video Archive It’s Lynn’s last show of the year, and she is talking about defense secretary James Mattis resigning. Many feel this is losing the last stable voice in the White House, and the beginning of the end. She is also talking about the stock market. This has been the worst December for stocks since…
Holiday Movie Advent Day 20: No Sleep ‘Til Christmas
In the spirit of the holiday season, Pittsburgh City Paper presents a holiday movie advent calendar. One holiday movie review, every day ’til Christmas (probably). Lizzie (Odette Annable) seems to have it all – a successful career, a smart, devoted, smoking hot fiancé (Charles Michael Davis), and lovely friends. There’s just one thing – her…
Lynn Cullen Live – 12/20/18
Video Archive This morning Lynn is talking about how the holidays are a bad time to get a new pet. A New York Times article on how to keep a pet safe during the holidays, also brought up something she never thought of. The article says whisker fatigue is a major problem for cats, and…
Gov. Tom Wolf hints at openness to recreational marijuana legalization in state
During a Twitter Q&A on Wednesday, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf (D-York) hinted at a change of heart in his stance toward recreational marijuana legalization in the commonwealth. “I think it is time for Pennsylvania to take a serious and honest look at recreational marijuana,” tweeted Wolf in response to a question asking when Pennsylvania would…
Lynn Cullen Live – 12/19/18
Video Archive The Pittsburgh City Paper’s Pittsburghers of the Year is out today, and Lynn thinks it’s a great list. She is especially impressed with the good work The Islamic Center of Pittsburgh, and 412 Food Rescue has been doing. Lynn is also mourning the passing of Penny Marshall who died yesterday. She will always…
Pittsburghers of the Year
Our Pittsburghers of the Year are resilient. They stand up when others have fallen down. They give when others pockets are empty. In an especially difficult year, we’re awarding the title to two groups who have each shown they are not only Pittsburghers who take care of each other, but Pittsburghers whose kindness is spreading…
Veteran women artists inspire 707 Gallery exhibition Support Group
In 2017, Casey Droege set out to promote and strengthen the Pittsburgh arts community by founding the artist-run, woman-owned consultation business Casey Droege Cultural Productions. Now Droege, an accomplished artist and self-described “cultural producer,” continues her mission of being an arts advocate with Support Group. Showing at 707 Gallery from Dec. 21-March 3, Support Group…
Pittsburghers of Year: The Islamic Center of Pittsburgh
As Pittsburghers reeled from the shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in late October, a message of unity from a local community leader went viral. Wasi Mohamed, executive director of the Islamic Center of Pittsburgh, gave a speech announcing that Pittsburgh’s Muslim community had raised $70,000 in just two days for Tree of Life…
Gab Bonesso learns the cost of a cookie
Gather ’round children, I want to tell you a story. I was 9 years old and Christmas was approaching. I was visiting my grandmother and she was talking to my parents about baking Christmas cookies. She made the same three cookie recipes every year: chocolate chips, thumbprints, and Italian wedding cookies. She never varied from…
The danger lurking right under your nose at kids’ birthday parties
I was recently made aware that my kids have a birthday party to attend this weekend. I got astigmatism from how quickly my eyes rolled back in their sockets. It’s not that I don’t like kids, or parties, or bouncy houses, or needless injuries, or endless screaming, or trips to the emergency room. It’s that…
Pittsburghers of the Year: Leah Lizarondo and the 412 Food Rescue heroes
In 2015, 412 Food Rescue began its mission to save food from ending up in landfills. After three years and more than 4 million pounds of rescued food, the group’s co-founder and CEO, Leah Lizarondo, is looking to expand their efforts in the coming year. “Our goal is to grow to 10 cities,” says Lizarondo,…
Free Will Astrology
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Until 1920, most American women didn’t have the right to vote. For that matter, few had ever been candidates for public office. There were exceptions. In 1866, Elizabeth Cady Stanton was the first to seek a seat in Congress. In 1875, Victoria Woodhull ran for president. Susanna Salter became the first…
Looking for gift recommendations for book lovers? Ask Pittsburgh authors. That’s what we did
It’s hard to wrap a book and make it look like anything else. But book lovers and avid readers usually don’t mind, because they don’t want anything but books for presents. Pittsburgh is home to numerous indie bookstores and one of the best writing colonies in the country, if not the world. Who better to ask…
Take yourself on a holiday bar crawl in Downtown Pittsburgh this week
Downtown Pittsburgh is home to a record four holiday pop-up bars this year: Auld Lang Syne, Jingle Bar, Tinsel Town Cocktails, and the perennial favorite Miracle. City Paper sent intrepid food reporter Maggie Weaver to sample the spirits, assess the festiveness, parse the cocktail puns, and see how these seasonal haunts measure up this year. …
Best of Touring Dance 2018
This past year was a banner one for touring dance productions gracing Pittsburgh stages. From the Cultural Trust’s Pittsburgh International Festival of Firsts, featuring the U.S. premiere of Haitian dance company Ayikodans’ Cri des Nago and France’s Aurélien Bory and Compagnie 111’s ingenious ESPÆCE, to the Kelly Strayhorn Theater’s presentation of Michael Sakamoto’s intercultural work…
The PA Market serves up a satisfying, if confused concept
Change is not new for the property at 108 19th Street in the Strip District. The towering structure has masqueraded as clubs, restaurants, and even a TV star, playing a part in the short-lived show, The Godfather of Pittsburgh. In March 2016, the space began to take a new form: a wine-driven, European-inspired food hall,…
BENNTY draws inspiration from the 48 Hour Film Project to create The October Project
In Sweden, in cars, in apartments, and in basements – these sound likes the beginning of a Dr. Seuss poem — but are instead the places where musicians recorded the tracks that make up The October Project. The artists featured on the album were given one weekend, a single word to include in lyrics, and…
Pittsburghers of the Year: Floating Dumpster
Dumpsters are, by definition, unglamorous. They exist to hold large amounts of waste and are therefore filthy, some might even say disgusting. In order for a dumpster to become a star, something truly special has to happen. When heavy rains fell in the South Hills last May, the streets filled with gushing water. Then, a…
2018: Daydreams and Reflections
In “APES**T,” Beyoncé sings “Call my girls and put ’em all on a spaceship” and I always raise hand and yell, “Call me ‘Yonce, pick me! I want to go.” Sometimes anywhere else in the cosmos seems better than planet Earth in 2018. I’ve coped with a difficult year with occasional daydreaming. I let my…
Shoplifters explores the complexities of family and poverty
In Shoplifters, an untraditional family living in poverty sticks together, despite a lack of blood relation. Directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda, in Japanese with English subtitles, the movie takes a close look at how people build new families to depend on when their biological families fall short. Osamu (Lily Franky) and his wife Naboyu (Sakura Ando)…
Q: Is it normal for someone to prefer clitoral stimulation/orgasms to vaginal penetration?
Dear Jessie, Vaginal penetration is rather “meh” for me. Clitoral stimulation is the best way for me to climax. Everyone seems to think it’s “wrong” that I prefer clitoral stimulation over penetration. Is it normal for someone to prefer clitoral stimulation/orgasms? ~ Shy Spells ~ Dear Shy Spells, You are certainly not alone in this!…
7 Days of Concerts
Thursday The Stolen, A Summer High, Bronnie, Young Lungs 7 p.m. The Funhouse at Mr. Smalls, Millvale. www.mrsmalls.com Friday Midnite Snake, Come Holy Spirit, Phil Boyd 9 p.m. Brillobox, Bloomfield. www.brilloboxpgh.com Saturday Eternal Boy 6 p.m. The Smiling Moose, South Side. www.smiling-moose.com Sunday PSO Highmark Holiday Pops 2:30 p.m. Heinz Hall, Downtown. www.pittsburghsymphony.org Monday Steel…
Arlo Aldo strips down with Two-Piece Promenade
With just a pair of microphones between them, no editing, click tracks, or layering, David Manchester and Jessica Hoffmann of Arlo Aldo recorded Two-Piece Promenade. The five-track release from November is 100 percent live and captures the indie-folk band in its most exposed and intimate form. “It’s very earnest and honest in terms of what…
