Why Is Regent Square called Regent Square?
The short answer is: because somebody thought there was money in it. A lot of communities take their names from historic people or natural features: Squirrel Hill, Upper St. Clair, Beltzhoover. But in many suburban subdivisions and the like, the names are chosen by developers looking to make a buck. Often,…
A Beautiful Mindlessness
I’ll confess: I’m taking the January cover story of Pittsburgh magazine — which supposedly identifies the city’s “25 Most Beautiful People” — personally. It’s not because I’m not on the list, or because exploiting the human physique is City Paper’s niche, especially in our last dozen pages. (What’s next? A feature in Whirl…
Running Away From Office
It may be the highest-profile job opening in the city, but the number of resumes flooding into the race for mayor of Pittsburgh is shrinking fast. On Dec. 21, Mayor Tom Murphy said he wouldn’t seek a fourth term. Now his ally, state Rep. Dan Frankel, has opted out. Long considered a…
Bucking for Bike Lanes
For years, the city’s only bike lanes have been on the wide but meandering Beechwood Boulevard in Squirrel Hill. Now, the city’s pledged to pay for marking off as many as five new bike lanes. It’s enough to make the city’s oft-disrespected cyclists giddy: Finally, biking on city streets will be given some official recognition,…
ACORN’s Help Not Far from Christmas Tree
The post-Christmas credit-card bill arrives. Then come the solicitations, urging you to get a tax-refund-anticipation loan, or roll all your debts into a big mortgage. The terms initially sound enticing, but the paperwork shoved your way is full of high fees and exorbitant interest rates. Before you know it, your holiday splurge can cost you…
Stop the Revolution, Dem Wants Santorum Off
To American history teacher Chuck Pennacchio, the Commonwealth’s junior Sen. Rick Santorum is a kind of reverse revolutionary, trying to un-write the U.S. Constitution’s equal protection for all citizens, not to mention the separation of church and state and privacy rights. “This radical shift to the right … reminds me that every generation needs…
Thai Gourmet
Location: 4504 Liberty Ave., Bloomfield. 412-681-4373 Hours: Mon.-Thu. 11 a.m.-2:30 p.m., 4-9 p.m.; Fri-Sat 11 a.m.-2:30 p.m., 4-11 p.m.; Sun 4-9 p.m. Prices: Appetizers and soup, $3.50-7; entrees $9-13 Fare: Thai, with some Chinese Atmosphere: Do they have 1950s diners in Thailand? Liquor: None With its out-with-the-old, in-with-the-new imperative, New Year’s seemed the perfect time…
Terra Ambient
What a difference two years can make. In 2002, Pittsburgh-area electronic musician Jeff Kowal (a.k.a. Terra Ambient) debuted on a Nashville-based label with a slice of powerfully ominous ambient music called The Darker Space. Dense, brooding synth drones dripped from the speakers like stalactites, while spacey blurps and electronic rhythms pulsated gently in the blackness.…
Aqueduct
Don’t expect to find any hidden surprises at the bottom of these sugar-coated pop songs — just a lively dose of lo-fi keyboard bleeps and bloops, and one hell of a convincing drum machine. The solo project of former Oklahoman Dave Terry, Aqueduct sounds a good bit like many of its Barsuk label-mates: a bit…
Paris Combo
Since its eponymous 1997 debut album, Paris Combo has continually proven itself to be the Audrey Tautou of modern French music: at once young and impishly brash yet possessed of a noirish, captured-in-monochrome beauty and elegance. Another point at which these two Gallic names intersect: recognition. How many other modern Paris café bands — performing…
A Shot at Higher Office
[[Vox Pop]] Pittsburgh is a shot-and-a-beer town and Bobby O’Connor is a shot-and-a-beer guy. Political wags seem to have developed a conventional wisdom about the upcoming Pittsburgh mayor’s race: It’s Bobby O’s to lose. I am here to puncture that aura of inevitability. Why? That’s what asshole journalists do. If we…
Penalizing Homeowners
Look, up in the sky! It’s the Airship Liberty, one of two blimps in Ameriquest Mortgage Co.’s inflatable fleet. The other is called Airship Freedom. And wasn’t that the Ameriquest logo — the one with the Liberty Bell facsimile — on the All-Star Game ballots during the 2004 baseball season? Sure was. It often showed…
Re-gender-ation
When Suzie Silver poses as the late Lynyrd Skynyrd singer Ronnie Van Zant in her video “Free Bird,” it’s beyond a simple lip sync, more than karaoke with a wig and a fake mustache. For the out lesbian artist, a self-described former “Southern California motorcycle surfer chick,” it’s an embodiment of everyone’s license…
