Open House
Stand in front of 5515 Penn Avenue looking east, and you can see down the gently sloping street into the business district of East Liberty and beyond. Punctuated by steeples, the view is framed picturesquely against the green East Hills in the distance. An 18-story brick residential structure, the East Mall Tower, used to straddle…
Camping With Henry and Tom
OK, this much we know as fact: President Warren G. Harding really did go ÒcampingÓ with Henry Ford and Thomas Edison in July, 1921, at a place since commemorated as Camp Harding County Park, near Hancock, Md. What we don’t know is what they talked about, or what they would have talked about if they…
Pittsburgh n’@
From: http://deadspin.com/sports/job-openings-now-listed-on-careerbuilder.com/one-more-pittsburgh-pirates-fan-will-stake-a-walkout-275968.php job openings now listed on careerbuilder.com Earlier this year, Kevin McClatchy released the chair of Pittsburgh Pirates majority owner from his grasp. Since he was on a roll, yesterday he announced he will let go of another cherished title at the end of the year: CEO. Hey, if you love something, let it…
Special effects wizard Steve Tolin is key to PICT’s violent satire, The Lieutenant of Inishmore
“I try really hard not to be pigeon-holed into being a blood guy or bullet guy.”
Name games
In an exhaustive six-month study of Pittsburgh’s two dailies, beginning late last December, City Paper has determined that the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review far outpaces the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in publicizing these embarrassing tidbits — seemingly without pattern or plan, but with obvious passion. In a tally of nicknames other than diminutives (“Robert ‘Bobbie'” just doesn’t count) that…
This Just In: July 11 – 18
Highlights from the local TV news.
Complaint Department
Local members of the National Organization of Women say they’re looking at whether there’s evidence of domestic violence victims not receiving the help they needed from police. While the group gets occasional calls from women making those claims, NOW is seeking to gather more such testimonies in a full-blown investigation.
Giving Birth to Solutions
It wasn’t Katherine Drahnak’s plan to become a mother at 22. It didn’t seem like the ideal time to start a family: Drahnak was single, waiting tables part time and living at her mother’s Edgewood house. But life had other plans, and so did Javier, who was born June 21, 2005. Being among Pennsylvania’s 900,000…
Savage Love
I’m pro-sex, bisexual, and GGG. I’m also a mother. I have a 14-year-old son, and when I type a Web site address into our home computer, a million porn sites pop up. I’ve had lots of lovers, watched my share of porn, I masturbate, blah blah blah. But something about my baby looking at Asian…
Diagnosis: Paranoia
If the terrorist threat keeps you from shopping, everyone from President Bush on down agrees, then the terrorists have won. So if fear of terrorism prevents us from fixing our health-care system, isn’t that a victory for al-Qaeda too? Apparently not, judging from local conservative Jerry Bowyer’s July 6 appearance on Fox News. Some of…
Minority Report
There are a lot of e-mails flying around lately, talking about how people are shocked and surprised by a new report on Pittsburgh’s racial disparities. Issued by the University of Pittsburgh’s Center on Race and Social Problems, the June 26 report tells us what many who live, work and/or play in Pittsburgh’s black communities already…
Boca Chica releases debut full-length, Transform Into Beasts
“There are animals mentioned in a lot of my songs — not on purpose, it just happened that way. So it’s something I noticed after the fact.”
Punks wed; seminal ’90s group The Pist reunites for Pittsburgh show
By this time, an entire class of punks has grown up on The Pist without ever having the opportunity to see the band live.
Brah Records’ Pterodactyl swoops down on Garfield Artworks
“We have a pretty distorted view of what the stuff we’re doing is good for.”
Transylvanian folk preservationists Üsztürü play Howler’s
Hungarian folk of the brand played by Üsztürü is characterized by simple instrumentation, not unlike rootsy American outfits: guitar, violin and drums.
Brand Upon the Brain!
Canadian writer-director Guy Maddin’s latest cinematic fantasia is akin to a silent horror serial, albeit a very, very surreal one. This is Maddin’s milieu, though; his imagination — which is something like Baz Luhrmann on mushrooms that hit you like an Alejandro Jodorowsky double feature — spills out onscreen and is better experienced rather than…
The Boss Of It All
When the enigmatic Danish filmmaker Lars von Trier chose to make an office comedy, he felt fit to insert disclaimers — “It’s a comedy, and harmless as such.” In this farce, Kristoffer (Jens Albinus), is an actor who has been hired by Ravn (Peter Gantzler), founder of a Danish IT company, to play “the boss…
Palate
Chef Racicot’s signature dish, tuna tartare, was a perfectly formed puck of sweet yellowfin tuna mixed with juicy cucumber and topped with a dollop of chickpea puree.
An artistic exchange between Venice and America sparks the Carnegie’s Viva Vetro! show.
Under the gallery lights, the vase has the fragile transparency and opalescent sheen of a soap bubble.
Scooter Commuter
Francine Porter thinks that President Bush’s decision to keep former vice presidential aide Lewis “Scooter” Libby out of prison is worse than the Watergate scandal. Porter, and about a dozen other protesters, stood outside of the William S. Moorehead Federal Building July 6 holding a large banner that simply said “Impeach.”
Pittsburgh joins the rest of the world, pulsing with global dance music
“The craze is not just in New York — it’s in Berlin, all over the former Soviet Union and the Balkans.”
White Christmas
One of the brilliant aspects of movie musicals is just how removed from reality they are É especially as it regards the actuality of theater musicals. Which is to say that movie musicals about stage musicals seem to be written by people who’ve never actually staged a stage musical. Performers flawlessly perform numbers they’ve never…
A conversation with escape artist David Doyle
“People hire magicians — people don’t hire an escape artist.”
Dr. Goddess Goes to Jail
It’s fitting that August Wilson’s last play, Radio Golf, is about the future of the Hill District. As developers (and a mayoral candidate) plot to raze the old buildings and replace them with a shopping center, an old lunatic stands in their way, claiming ownership of a broken old house slated for demolition. The backdrop…
