Mad Men ALERT!
First off — on the remote chance that anybody was missing this blog and wondering when it was ever going to be updated, please accept my apologies. I’ve been sick, unwell enough that even my TV brought me little joy. I’m back with this quick note about the AMC original series, Mad Men, which was…
Volume Discount
Here at City Paper, we pride ourselves on our highbrow literary tastes — even in the height of summer. Our beachbags are filled with timeless works of literature: the prison notebooks of Antonio Gramsci, selections from the Gnostic gospels, anthologies of poetry by Jim Morrison — all the definitive works of the Western canon. Yet…
Fugitive Pieces
During World War II, a Jewish Polish boy named Jakob, after seeing his family slaughtered, is rescued by a Greek archeologist; the pair ride out the war in a remote corner of Greece, and eventually relocate to the safety of Canada and academia. But the grown Jakob (Stephen Dillane) struggles emotionally to embrace life and…
Mamma Mia!
Phyllida Lloyd’s film is a wisp of a domestic comedy, in which its characters express their deepest desires only through the songs of ABBA. It all centers around a wedding, presided over by momma Meryl Streep, and featuring as special guests, the three men who might be the father of her daughter, the bride (Amanda…
Journey to the Center of the Earth / Hellboy II: The Golden Army
A double-feature at the megaplex this week of Journey to the Center of the Earth and Hellboy II: The Golden Army would broadly suggest that man should stay topside on his planet, and not go looking for portals to subterranean worlds. Or, at least: If you must go below, go heavy. The reputed hero of…
This Just In: July 17 – 24
Highlights from the local TV news: The waffle cone of death!
The Red Ring
The Red Ring isn’t just an exciting new option for Duquesne students; it’s a legitimate addition to Pittsburgh’s grown-up dining scene.
Prayers for the Dead
Inside glass doors, I look for a flatbed of trees and sky, see stained glass in thin splintered light — Saint Peter, Saint Paul, Saint John. I exit, light a cigarette, and the smoke traces the wind, makes it visible. Grave stones, like self-portraits of the dead; some made of pine, some steel, leave silhouettes…
Rick Rhodes wrote the book on the Ohio River and its tributaries — especially when it comes to boating them.
“I always was looking at that Monongahela River and I always wanted to take a boat down it.”
The Gist Street Reading Series returns for its annual cookout.
“So many people have ex-roommates, second cousins [here] — I think someone last year … stayed with an ex-boyfriend.”
A new music festival is founded in memory of Alexander Berkman — the anarchist who tried to assassinate Henry Clay Frick.
“It’s the Ed Sullivan Show for labor music.”
The Last Five Years
You may be watching the oldest story in the book, but you’re watching one of its freshest iterations.
When experimental film works — and when it doesn’t — at the Pittsburgh Biennial.
Here, Tent points to (and we achieve) the complex mental activity the neurologist describes.
Going Through the Motions
An uneventful Pittsburgh City Council meeting turned ugly when a familiar subject — Lamar Advertising’s Grant Street billboard application — came up at meeting’s end. On July 24, Lamar Outdoor Advertising will appear before the city’s Zoning Board of Adjustment, asking for a permit to build a 1,200-square-foot electronic billboard, complete with scrolling ticker sign,…
Pittsburgh n’@
Dispatches from the blogosphere: Iron Curtain-gate!
LGBT Issues: Film explores what life is like for black lesbians
New film, screening at Grey Box Theatre, explores the lives and experiences of African-American lesbians.
Open Season
Activist tries once again to bring transparency to city government
Garage-psyche duo Sic Alps poised to attract larger audience
Thurston Moore counts himself among their fans, and their sound isn’t wildly far from an act like Olivia Tremor Control.
Quitzow and Setting Sun bring math and magic to Howler’s
If the Fiery Furnaces could stick with just one musical idea and develop it, they might sound more like Quitzow.
Blue Öyster Cult plays South Park Amphitheatre
You should probably just watch This is Spinal Tap, and look up the word “awesome” in your dictionary.
!!! survives electroclash, recruits a Pittsburgher
“We know we make this chaos happen, let’s trap it.”
Brillobox scours the meat from its menu
There are lots of things you can get at Brillobox: dance fever, validation for your trivia habit, an eyeful of hotness and the knowledge that you knew about the place before The New York Times told the entire planet how cool it was. But there’s one thing you can’t get there anymore. Meat. “We wanted…
Bonehead-Gate
“Politics” is not a dirty word. — Mike Veon In the days since former state Rep. Michael Veon and 11 others were indicted in the “Bonusgate” scandal, there has been no end to the sordid revelations. Perhaps the most pathetic, though, involves the Allentown Fishing Expedition. In this little-noted episode, three legislative staffers received taxpayer-funded…
WRCT DJ Jason Baldinger celebrates 10 years on-air, and a new LP
“Between doing a radio show and pressing vinyl, even though it’s making a bit of a comeback, you’re still talking about a waste of time in the era of downloading.”
Savage Love
I am a 23-year-old woman living with my 25-year-old boyfriend. We have been dating for a little over a year, and for the majority of that time we had a great sex life. Unfortunately, when we decided to move in together, we also decided to stop having intercourse until we decide to get married. We…
Art and politics mix powerfully in Fe Gallery’s Pinky Swear.
Yet the construction lingers above viewers, presenting letter-for-letter the Bush administration’s comfortless message: “Stay the Course.”
