Fitzgerald: Without statewide tax reform, “I’ll go to jail” before sending out tax reassessments
Most political junkies know that one of the Republican candidates for county executive, Charles McCullough, is facing a date with a judge. What you may not know is that one of the Democratic candidates, Rich Fitzgerald, says he’s willing to be hauled into court as well. For the good of the people, of course. It’s…
MP3 Monday: Big Hurry
I was scrambling on deadline for an MP3 to post today because a couple of prospects fell through temporarily — you might say I was in a … rush. Then the always-reliable Big Hurry came through with a single I played on WYEP a few weeks back. It’s a fun little joint that builts a…
Pallus formally launches council bid
Brighton Heights resident Vince Pallus has made official a development we first reported nearly three weeks ago: A short time ago, he released a statement announcing his campaign against City Council President Darlene Harris in this year’s Democratic primary. Pallus joins another contender in the race, Bobby Wilson, and has ties to Mayor Luke Ravenstahl.…
Local media landscape getting crowded with planned new online venture
So it looks like Charlie Humphrey, who heads up Pittsburgh Filmmakers, is launching an online news venture later this year, with help from the Pittsburgh Foundation. Attentive City Paper readers shouldn’t be surprised. We first reported on the foundation community’s interest in such a venture back in June. That story came about in the context…
Your tax dollars still at work on FOP hoax
Courtesy of today’s Post-Gazette, we learn that the District Attorney is mulling charges in the great FOP press release hoax — which led to a police raid we first reported on last month. Coincidentally enough, just this week The New York Times carried a story on a similarly faked news release. Seems that some Internet…
Political round-up: Developments in City Council races and the county exec contest
Gonna bundle up a couple different races in this dispatch, with news from City Council Districts 3 and 9, as well as initial impressions of a new entrant in the county executive race. If that doesn’t interest you, Dan Savage has some advice this week for married dudes who are bored with their sex lives,…
Short List: Week of February 17 – 24
Thu., Feb. 17 — Stage Aficionados of heady theater productions have probably already marked their calendars for Churchill in Short(s)? The cheekily named anthology gathers rarely staged one-acts by venerable British playwright Caryl Churchill, known for works including The Skriker and A Number. “This Is A Chair” explores the vagaries of communication; “Lovesick” concerns a…
A baseball brawl from 1965 sparks a wide-ranging one-man show from Roger Guenveur Smith.
The story “has a kind of Biblical resonance.”
Congo Square
Although this is called a musical, it more feels like a play punctuated by short songs which fail to come together.
Private Lives
Noel Coward’s masterpiece fits my description of perfect escapism: well-dressed, well-spoken people misbehaving.
The Lonesome West
If you can digest the toxic relationships and easy sadomasochism, McDonagh is an easy playwright to love.
Thai Suan Thip
Uneven menu and service mar the strengths of this Bellevue eatery.
Just Go With It
In the fantasy world of this man-child romantic comedy, Danny (Adam Sandler), a plastic surgeon, discovers that pretending to be unhappily married is the perfect way to score one-night stands with gorgeous young women. So naturally, when Danny meets the perfect woman (Brooklyn Decker), he must woo her by pretending to be suffering a painful…
CD Reviews: New releases from Greazy Duzit, Chalk Dinosaur and Run, Forever
Greazy Duzit Mucho Greazy Tongue-twisting emcee Greazy Duzit steps out of the shadow of Pittsburgh-based rap group Shindiggaz with his debut release Mucho Greazy, a hard, heady blend of esoteric street poetics and blistering underground beats. Keeping pace with Greazy’s hardened flow is Shindiggaz’ DJ Thermos, who produced much of the album, crafting dense tapestries…
Critics’ Picks: Future Islands, Pearl and the Beard, Matthew Perryman Jones and GWAR
Music highlights the week of Feb. 17-23, from a trio (Pearl and the Beard) to tuneful (Matthew Perryman Jones) to tasteless (GWAR).
White Material
As a modern-day African country descends into chaos, a French woman, seemingly impervious to impending danger, fights to keep her family’s aging coffee plantation intact. Claire Denis’ drama White Material recounts, in nonlinear fashion, the multiple and overlapping disintegrations of self, family, workplace, community and civil order. Maria (Isabelle Huppert) is the central figure, connecting…
Unliveable City
East of Liberty in Unlivable Times is filmmaker Chris Ivey’s attempt, he says, to tell “what it’s like to be young and black in Pittsburgh.” Ivey’s East of Liberty documentary series, which he started shooting in 2005, covers issues like gentrification and racial tension in East Liberty. More than 4,000 viewers have seen one installment…
Cold Weather
This indie film is something of a hybrid: Cold Weather has elements of a wry mumblecore comedy married to mini-mystery while wrapped in a larger meditation about the unsung strengths of relationships. For Doug (Cris Lankenau), a college drop-out who had returned to Portland to share an apartment with his sister, Gail (Trieste Kelly Dunn),…
Oscar-Nominated Short Films
The Confession. A 9-year-old Catholic boy faces his first time in the box having committed no sins, which means he can’t become a “real Catholic.” So he and a friend set out to make some harmless mischief, and two people end up dead. It’s well done, if predictable, and it introduces Tanel Toom as an…
Demonizing Josie Dimon
You know, being an alt-weekly editor is all about presenting alternative points of view. And since Josie Dimon is being treated as the devil — the paramedic most blamed for the death of Curtis Mitchell during “Snowmageddon” — I’ll be the devil’s advocate. Dimon does have her champions. But righteous anger seems like the more…
