Crossing Lines
At age 16, my friend Alex got a tattoo: a three-legged octopus. It was a stick ‘n’ poke done by a train-hopping punk in Oakland. There aren’t enough legs because the punk got tired of tattooing — though Alex tells people that the octopus lost them in a fight. If the punk had given me…
Local novelist Heather Terrell tries her hand at the burgeoning young-adult supernatural genre.
“She’s like, ‘Hello, where are you living? Vampires are huge!'”
Strength in What Remains author Tracy Kidder visits to talk about writing — and his editor, Richard Todd.
“To the extent that I think clearly about anything, I think clearly through stories.”
Tapping Expertise at Full Pint
Too many cooks may spoil the soup. But beer is another matter — at least at Full Pint Brewing Co. in North Versailles. “We have five brewers here with an enormous amount of experience,” Mark Kegg, the aptly-named partner who handles the company’s finances and lends a hand in the brewery. “It’d be really hard…
Taking It Krautside
This cabbage practically “cooks” itself
Pittsburgh rockers Shade, through the eyes of a cultural historian, fan — and friend
“Shade’s artistic impact was incalculable and they set an ideal for living — perhaps a happier one than what Joy Division imagined.”
Up all night with the funky Pimps of Joytime
A song by The Pimps of Joytime might segue from an Afrobeat groove to an electronic club beat with sitar — but it’s all pretty damn funky.
Funk outfit Galactic jams with guests from Living Colour and Rebirth Brass Band
New Orleans’ Galactic took a decidedly different approach with its 2010 album Ya-Ka-May, a fusion of funk, bouncy hip hop and electronica.
Handwired and Homegrown
Trevor Baker began experimenting with music gear in 2007, squeezed between his day job and his accomplished indie-pop group, Good Night, States. Since then, servicing vintage gear and building custom effects and amps has become his main job, under the name TRVR Handwired. Baker began taking on repair work from local music stores about a…
On the Record with Indiana University of Pennsylvania criminology professor Rosemary Gido
Rosemary Gido, a criminology professor at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, is the co-author of Women’s Mental Health Issues Across the Criminal Justice System. She also recently contributed to Women and Justice: It’s a Crime, co-authoring a chapter on mentally ill women in jail. Gido blames the closing of state mental institutions, or deinstitutionalization, and the…
Reporting Practices: LGBT community rallying after ‘transphobic’ news report
Online they allegedly advertised as women. In police reports, their genders are listed male, and they are referred to as transvestites. And one television news reporter referred to Nakala Jackson and Tamika Jones as “two men” who were “posing as women and operating as prostitutes.” To some activists, meanwhile, they were the victims of transphobia.…
Executive Decision: Race to replace Onorato heating up on both sides of the ballot
When Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato ran for re-election in 2007, he faced only token opposition. The person aiming to be his successor, however, won’t be so lucky. The primary election may be three months away, but the field to replace him seems to be getting more crowded by the day. For the Democrats,…
Savage Love
I am a straight man. I met my present girl 10 years ago. I fell head over heels for her. I still love her. But, little by little, she has become boring to me. Our sex life has cooled. Days run together with mundane activities like watching TV, going to the store and hanging out…
Rust Belted: Can media obsession with Braddock’s John Fetterman be over now?
At one time, the best thing the Mon Valley had going for it was that everyone wanted to talk about Braddock Mayor John Fetterman. But now, perhaps, it might be better if everyone stopped. In recent years, the tattooed 6-foot-8-inch mayor drew notice from outlets like Rolling Stone, The New York Times, The Colbert Report…
MP3 Monday: Joy Ike
Editor’s note: With this edition of MP3 Monday, we welcome our new music intern, Bethie Girmai. She’ll be holding down the fort on Mondays and adding to the music section this semester. Hooray! Happy manic Monday, Pittsburgh! If you’re looking for something to transform your Monday from manic to magical, check out Pittsburgh native Joy…
Scenic Design in City Theatre’s Marcus
Scenic design is both the most concrete and often (except for maybe sound design) the least analyzed aspect of a stage play. But veteran designer Tony Ferrieri’s work on Marcus; or The Secret of Sweet struck me as exceptional. The play’s a coming-of-age story set in the Louisiana bayou. City’s thrust stage is set up…
New G-20 Documentary to Screen
Local filmmaker John Detwiler is set to premiere Pittsburgh Welcomes …, a new take on the 2009 meeting of world leaders here that generated street protests, mass arrests and widespread curtailment of civil liberties. You remember those wacky three days in September: What other event could have brought us both zero action on climate change…
Fetterman gets national press … and this time it ain’t a puff piece
For fans of all things John Fetterman, Sue Halpern’s story on the mayor of Braddock is a must-read. The story is online today in the New York Times Magazine. (The print edition will be available in the Sunday copy of the paper.) And when compared to the media coverage Fetterman has gotten elsewhere, Halpern’s piece…
In city council district 3, Bruce Kraus ain’t backing down
Five years ago, when Bruce Kraus first ran for city council in a special election to replace Gene Ricciardi, I often felt he was campaigning by saying as little as possible. During one interview, I recall, he objected to my use of the phrase “bully pulpit” — because he thought the word “bully” had negative…
Titus Andronicus plans siege of CMU
Late word here in the music department is that Titus Andronicus, the well-thought-of rock/punk/indie band with singalong choruses and Civil War imagery galore, is playing this Sunday night (Feb. 13) in a show put on by the CMU Activities Board. I thought I’d let you know that. Because The Monitor was one of the more…
Short List: Week of February 10 – 17
When local actor-made-good David Conrad was growing up in Pittsburgh, his best friend was Lowell Boyers, son of Conrad’s English teacher and nephew of actor/performance artist Spalding Gray. Gray would occasionally come to town and spend time with the lads, enthralling them with tales of his mad and beautiful life. Both boys are now grown and…
Interview: Kid Congo Powers
Five questions with Kid Congo Powers, of seminal bands The Gun Club, The Cramps and Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds.
A brief guide to Pittsburgh music labels and creative communities
While such labels seldom last more than a few years, some remain memorable while others are just so many broken links.
Lovely Recordings catalyzed the city’s underground scene
“We saw Pittsburgh had the fan base and the band base to really make an independent label like this work.”
Forever Now: Veteran rockers Shade mark 13 years with a new release
For most bands, making it five years — let alone a decade — is an achievement. Shade, in its 13 years of existence, has never gone on a formal hiatus, and the Pittsburgh rock band continues to write and record music. The independence Shade developed over its long history was put to good use on…
Salt of the Earth
Kevin Sousa’s long-awaited new restaurant is an all-round winner
Gnomeo and Juliet
That said, it’s cute without being goopy, amusing without being snarky and even manages to finesse the admittedly happier ending. This time out, our warring families are gnomes in the gardens of feuding neighbors. Handsome Gnomeo (voiced by James McAvoy) falls for plucky Juliet (Emily Blunt), even as around them rage battles over lawnmowers, flowers…
Barney’s Version
Barney Panofsky (Paul Giamatti) has lived a messy, semi-successful life: He’s well off but dissatisfied; abrasive but sentimental; desperate for romantic stability but not very good at it. Now, growing old and lonely in Montreal, he reflects on his life — his libertine youth in Italy, three wives, two kids and innumerable cigars, whiskeys and…
The Company Men
John Wells’ drama is a well-intentioned blunder: a tone-deaf tale set in these tough times that asks us to feel sorry for very wealthy people who lose their jobs and are forced to live like slightly less-wealthy people.
Tommy Lee Jones, Chris Cooper and Ben Affleck — in descending order of executiveness — all work…
Camelot
Director Ted Pappas delivers the work’s gleaming surface and dark shadows — yet still fails to overcome the challenges in Alan Jay Lerner’s flawed script.
Marcus; or The Secret of Sweet
McCraney has done a remarkable job capturing the small hidden moments and occasions for grand passion constantly battering a sexually awakening young man.
Pittsburgh Ballet reminds us that before Twilight — and after twilight — there was Dracula.
The company hopes to capitalize on pop culture’s current vampire obsession with Stevenson’s neo-Romantic ballet.
Backstage at Point Park, it’s not just what you say — it’s how you say it.
“Them bitches,” the tipsy young priest spits when his underage athletic charges are mentioned. They neither listen nor win, and his frustration is palpable — and wildly funny.
Performance writer Caroline Bergvall makes one of her two U.S. stops in Pittsburgh.
Just as Bergvall’s poetics seek to free language, performance writing seeks to free writing from textual exile.
The Silver Lining: Even without a title, Steelers’ season had plenty of highlights
If No. 7 is still weighing heavily on your mind, here is a septuplet of happier moments from the Steelers’ almost-championship season:
The Eagle
Kevin MacDonald’s film set in long-ago Roman-occupied England is a lackluster swords-and-sandals actioner. It’s epic-lite (perhaps because it’s adapted from a kids’ story), with only a handful of characters and a meager quest. Is there any doubt our Roman hero (Channing Tatum) will best the native Seal People and restore his family’s honor? It’s the…
Critics’ Picks: Deerhoof, Jimmy Eat World, Black Milk and Dr. Dog
Music highlights the week of Feb. 10-17, from Black Milk’s Motor City hip hop to spending Valentine’s with a beloved emo band.
Pittsburgh Playwrights accepts the challenge of staging noted playwright Frank Gagliano’s Voodoo Trilogy.
“When an artist is stretching like that, an audience’s imagination is going to be stretched.”
News Flash: P-G newsroom icon takes job with Corbett
“I’ve known some reporters who could write like a dream, and others who were the toughest investigators in town. But I’ve never known anyone who could do them both with the skill Dennis has.”
Groups offering alternatives to costly instant refunds
“If you can just wait a week [for your refund], it saves you 300-and-some dollars.”
Pittsburgh Courier Centennial Exhibit
I joined this morning’s press preview of America’s Best Weekly: A Century of the Pittsburgh Courier, which opens to the public Friday at the Heinz History Center. Much of it wasn’t installed yet, but a tour led by curator Sam Black suggests the show will provide plenty for folks interested in African-American history inside Pittsburgh…
What’s the story at the Post-Gazette?
You know, there used to be a time that if a Pittsburgh newspaper was going to be accused of catering to the interests of its publisher, that paper would be the Tribune-Review. These days? Not so much. In the past 72 hours, we’ve seen evidence to suggest the Post-Gazette, too, is being used as a…
