The Last King of Scotland
We know this isn’t going to end well, but the young Scottish doctor tumbles for Idi Amin, portrayed here marvelously, with equal parts charm and terror by Forest Whitaker.
Mayor ‘Stahled Out
I told you Mayor Opie was dopey. But you didn’t listen. Nobody listens to me. They think I have some personal grudge against the child. I’ve never even met the infant, they say. Well, I haven’t met George W. Bush, either. But from the first time I saw him on the tube, it was obvious…
Family Law
Family Law is a series of vignettes designed to illustrate a standard contemporary theme: the thirtysomething man who finally grows up. (Capsule review.)
La Cucina Dolce
Location: 4366 Old William Penn Highway, Monroeville. 412-374-1800 Hours: Mon.-Sat. 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Prices: Appetizers, salads and sandwiches $6-10; entrées $11-24 Fare: Italian Atmosphere: Warm bistro Liquor: BYOB Smoking: None Permitted One of our favorite ways to explore Western Pennsylvania is along its former highways and byways. Driving off the beaten path puts us on…
Making Winter Bearable
Winter’s gray days got you down? Perhaps an afternoon spent with colorful chattering macaws would put the bounce back in your step. How about a visit to a home-turned-museum that boasts 11 bars? Or the perusal of an experimental aluminum bikini? These are just a few of the experiences and treasures available to you at…
Stomp the Yard
A paper-thin inspirational story of the tough-skinned underdog, Stomp is a near-carbon copy of 2002’s Drum Line. (Capsule review.)
Letters To The Editor: Jan. 17 – 24
Feedback from our readers.
The Carnegie Museum of Art
It’s easy to hustle through the Carnegie Museum of Art’s Hall of Sculpture as if it were simply a hallway, especially if you’re on your way to the adjoining Museum of Natural History. But if you take your time, you might spot a small but worthy exhibit tucked into an alcove called the Treasure Room.…
Targeting “Modern Bullet Factory,” POG to Block CMU Building
“We need to create an opportunity to put us materially in front of the war machine,” says a protest organizer
This Just In
Speech Therapy Summary: Reaction to President Bush’s plan to send 21,000 more American troops to Iraq. Station: KDKA Channel 2 Reporter: John Shumway, “Live on the North Shore” When It Aired: Jan. 11 Running Time: 2 minutes, 26 seconds Visuals: Clips of statements from Bush’s Wednesday-evening address to the nation, followed by comments from people…
The Andy Warhol Museum
You wouldn’t think so to look at Andy Warhol’s “Vote McGovern” — a lurid 1972 portrait of Richard Nixon with mold-blue skin, orange eyes and lime lips — but the artist feared having something in common with our 37th president. Warhol loved tape-recording his conversations, in person and on the phone. But after Nixon was…
Jay A. Schaffer advocates Stepping Out of the Parade.
“It was like interrupted sex. You’d just get into the place and you had to get back to work.”
National Aviary
David Miller wheels his cart full of wax worms, crickets and other bird delights into the Wetlands room at the National Aviary, on the North Side. Across a shallow pond, six flamingos face the small crowd. A gray-winged trumpeter — looking like a folded Russian winter hat on spindles — alights on the cart, and…
Society for Contemporary Craft’s Bridge 9 spans usable art and artful social critique.
Behind the sign, a pool of red “blood” drips in rivulets; the blood is embellished, ironically, with ruby-colored Swarovski crystal beads.
Local emcee BZE releases Cuban Smoke Sessions Volume 2
“I’m on some real music. I’m not making music to sell.”
Pittsburgh Zoo and PPG Aquarium
The grayer months are a good time to enjoy the Pittsburgh Zoo and PPG Aquarium. There are fewer visitors, and improved sightlines amid winter’s barrenness. Presumably, even the animals are enjoying this season’s mild weather, but a spot of inclement weather is a good reason to linger at the aquarium and uncover more of its…
Along Allegheny River Boulevard, there are several closed turn-outs along the road. They appear to be used for some kind of loading maybe. What were they used for?
Built in the early 1930s, Allegheny River Boulevard reflected an early stage of America’s romance with the automobile — a time when the journey was as important as the destination. As with other roads built in that spirit (Bigelow Boulevard being another local example), road planners sought to create a road that you wouldn’t want…
Music On the Edge series presents the Raschèr Saxophone Quartet
“They don’t play jazz, and they’re not improvisers, but they’re very close to the concept of an avant-garde New Music ensemble.”
Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens
Strolling through most any part of Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens is apt to inspire thoughts of finally planting those bulbs, but it’s the Fruit and Spice Room in the South Conservatory that’s likeliest to make you hungry. The small room is crammed with delicious things you’d want to eat and smell — you’ll find…
Analysis: Demoted Commander’s Case Still Unsettling
Police-city suit raises questions no one wants to answer.
Israelis Boom Pam bring the surf-klezmer sexy time.
Pittsburghers with Jewish, Slavic or Mediterranean roots will recognize the ancestral melodies and off-kilter time signatures.
Sen. John Heinz Pittsburgh Regional History Center
If you believe that the Heinz History Center is only the repository of solemn, dusty old artifacts, think again: Hidden in plain sight in the special collection exhibit on the museum’s fourth floor is a racy piece of fashion design. There, among a cluttered display of aluminum items donated by Alcoa is a shimmering two-piece…
‘Summit’ Adds International Component as Racism Opponent
“Pittsburgh dynamic” of race one of the lessons of annual “Summit Against Racism.”
Here comes the twee: Brooklyn’s caUSE co-MOTION!
Enough melancholy tucked into the chiming guitars to balance the giddiness.
The George Westinghouse Museum
Wilmerding’s Westinghouse Museum preserves something that is close to being lost: the memory of how a corporation could build not just commodities, but communities. Sure, the museum’s four room-size galleries will teach you about Westinghouse’s airbrake, and the company’s role in broadcasting (which extended even to the He-Man cartoon series). You’ll see patent applications and…
Pittsburgh N’@
From http://pittsburghdish.typepad.com/: Port Authority opens Prince Albert can of worms. In response to the impending tangled web that is to become Pittsburgh’s transit system, the Port Authority has set up a hotline for the public to comment on proposed fare hikes and service snafus … (412) 566-5335 … It asks that irked and disgruntled customers…
No Exit
A really interesting aspect of this production is its focus on a new dimension of misery.
The James L. Kelso Bible Lands Museum
“Search for Sodom Declared Not to Be as Easy as It Sounds,” ran the headline in The Sunday Oregonian on June 22, 1924. Finding the artifacts discovered during that archaeological dig is easier — they’re on display in the James L. Kelso Bible Lands Museum, in Highland Park. “Being in the Middle East and seeing…
Healthy Sign for South Side
A new free clinic is probably one of Larry Elbaum’s least precarious life turns.
Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa’s imaginary folklore drives The Muckle Man.
While Muckle Man references Jaws, Aquaman and the old Saturday-morning show Sigmund and the Sea Monsters, it ultimately harks to wellsprings more nightmarish: drowned sailors who can’t quite die; the terrifying mysteries of the sea.
American Jewish Museum
For many neighborhood residents, the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh in Squirrel Hill is a popular spot to work out and do laps in the pool. Few ever think of it as a place to also exercise one’s mind and capacity for empathy. The American Jewish Museum, with exhibits in each of the center’s…
Iraq in Fragments
Director James Longely was searching not for danger, but for Iraq’s people, and their stories, and his beautifully photographed film plays more like neorealism than documentary.
Savage Love
I recently met the straight cousin of a good friend. On the night of our first meeting, I ended up rimming, blowing and getting fucked by him. And he blew me — badly. Since then, I’ve given him another blowjob. That night he slept with his arms around me and he repeatedly muttered to me…
International Academy of Jazz Hall of Fame
Covering the walls in a quiet corner of the bustling William Pitt Union is a collection of bronze plaques bearing the likenesses of jazz greats, past and present — from Louis Armstrong and Django Reinhardt to Fats Waller. And in their midst, along with a few tables and benches, you’ll find a large glass case…
Letters from Iwo Jima
It would be nonsense to call Letters from Iwo Jima the story told “from the Japanese point of view.”
New options join Bloomfield/Lawrenceville nightlife
All three floors of the normally serene bar were crowded. Which is a good thing … I guess?
Photo Antiquities
The woman had pulled the photographs from a closet: images of wartime Germany belonging to her uncle, a 92-year-old U.S. military veteran who survived D-Day. Were they worth anything? Scott Yoss, chief archivist and educator at Photo Antiquities Museum of Photographic History, leafs through the stack of black-and-whites. Around him, display cabinets section this North…
Sweet Land
This is a film about memory, which is always a mix of what’s actually true and what we earnestly believe to be true.
Pitt Panthers on the Prowl
Pitt’s Agnus Berenato coaches with a joie de vivre that’s palpable all the way up in the rafter seats. The Big East boasts five teams in college basketball’s Top 25: UConn, Louisville, Marquette, DePaul and Pitt. It could easily host six, because Rutgers should climb back into the Top 25 any second. I’m talking about…
Bayernhof Museum
It’s a fair bet you’ve never seen anything quite like the Bayernhof Museum, a private home open to visitors since 2004. The stone mansion that sits high above Sharpsburg is barely 25 years old. But its former resident, local businessman Charles B. Brown III, was an avid collector and consummate host, and had the resources…
Volver
Then Almodóvar’s overwhelming passion for genre and melodrama takes over, and his work often becomes more of an exercise in his own ingenuity than in the lives of its characters.
Black Market Takes the Established System of Commerce
Two wolves lay in the court at dawn — still hot from the tip-off, rebound, block — I see the young’n who thought he had it, so close he had it … but your hands & with them your body — locomotive after loco-motive comes & I am bound to the perpendiculars by my wrists…
St. Anthony’s Chapel
Skulls. Teeth. Dried blood. An entire skeleton, each individual bone painstakingly wrapped in silk. Oh, and Mass every Tuesday, since all the body parts come from saints. St. Anthony’s Chapel, in Troy Hill, houses the world’s largest collection of Catholic relics outside of the Vatican. The faithful, as well as curiosity-seekers, can take in the…
Unknown
Call it Reservoir Dogs meets Memento meets a twist on Stockholm Syndrome, with some climactic surprises
A Conversation with Vikki Hanchin
“Visionaries and psychics have confirmed that [Pittsburgh] is poised to transmute from a dense, heavy place into something else.”
Arthur and the Invisibles
Movies that split the kid-adult difference just irk both groups. (Capsule review.)
