Alberto Almarza and Art Out of the Box
The “Box,” as it turns out, is a set of white clapboard walls, a blue tarp serving as an awning, a small work table and a set of drawers. Last week, the Box sat on the corner of East Carson and 12th streets, and was occupied by artist Alberto Almarza. Art Out of the Box…
My weekend in shows
This past weekend was one fraught with Big Show Decisions here in Pittsburgh. As is our tradition, we got about 25 huge shows packed into one weekend, despite the fact that next month we’ll probably go weeks with out anything particularly worthwhile. While my personal propensity is generally to go to the smaller shows, the…
MP3 Monday: There There
No, I’m not consoling you because I didn’t come up with an MP3 this week. On the contrary: Today’s offering is from a band that’s literally called There There. They’re a four piece and their music is a dancey brand of rock that I’d say is pretty ’80s influenced. Just wait for that Prince falsetto…
Police accountability: those who don’t learn from history …
Last Wednesday’s city council meeting had a little bit of everything: a citizen speaking on behalf of incandescent light bulbs … Doug Shields urging that former Gov. Ed Rendell might be brought before council to discuss the Cvic Arena … even a blogger wearing a suit. But some aspects of the meeting sounded a little…
Benefit reading for African-American Theater
All arts groups struggle for funding, but today as in the past, African-American theater groups have to fight harder than most. This Monday, Pittsburgh’s most venerable black theater group, Kuntu Repertory Theatre, joins 18 other companies around the country in a one-day national initiative to boost awareness of the issue. The vehicle, naturally, is theater.…
Strip-club bill could result in protracted court battle, lawyer warns
While working on our story on strip club regulations, one of the people I spoke with was Florida-based First Amendment lawyer Larry Walters. Walters specializes in such cases, along with Internet and media law: I first met him when he was defending Karen Fletcher, a Donora woman who was indicted on obscenity charges for running…
Artists Image Resource Annual Summer Bash
There are plenty of parties going on this week, and that’s just counting art parties. Heck, the Mattress Factory alone is hosting two events this weekend. But you’re unlikely to get more fun for a few bucks than at AIR’s annual shindig (just a few blocks from the Mattress Factory, as it happens), from 5-10…
Those Darlins bring their Southern charm to Brillobox
“People think that everyone in the South is stupid, but there are rednecks in any rural area”
Stripping Away: Will tighter rules make strip clubs safer, or extinct?
The dancer’s 5′ 10″ frame is draped across the mirror-lined stage — naked except for a pink thong wrapped around her wrist, a tattoo arching around her pelvic bone and black platform stilettos. Hanging her head upside down off the stage, she flips her long auburn hair into the face of a female patron and…
Duke’s Station
5981 Baptist Road, Bethel Park.412-835-0697Hours: Sun. -Thu. 11 a.m.-10 p.m., Fri.-Sat. 11 a.m.-11 p.m.Prices: Appetizers, soups, sandwiches and salads $4-10; entrees $10-17Liquor: Full bar There’s a reason — actually, there are probably several reasons — that trains are the objects of such romance in our culture. There’s a poetry in train travel that is…
13 Assassins
Takashi Miike’s 13 Assassins opens with an austere ritual suicide beneath an overcast sky. How can a man stick a knife into his gut and barely utter a groan? That, I suspect, is the point. It’s 1844, a time of peace in the waning age of the warrior samurai, and these are tough guys. After…
Super 8
A small mill-town in Ohio, 1979: Six middle-school pals are making a zombie movie one night when they witness a very mysterious train derailment. Soon, weird stuff starts happening in town: Cars go dead, dogs run away, the sheriff goes missing — and a military clean-up crew moves in. “What on earth?!” is the central…
Out of This Furnace
“Despite sturdy, believable performances, the play has no power.”
The Book of Liz
“The play’s sweet disposition and somewhat sappy ending are certainly not something I anticipated.”
Violet Sharp
“The play’s long interrogation scenes are riveting, because Theo Allyn and Sam Turich are such perfect sparring partners.”
Comic Davon Magwood, on the eve of a by-the-bootstraps national tour.
“It’s like the Model U.N. on crack.”
Reviewing Eric Singer’s mechanized visitors from the near future.
“If there’s a People’s Choice Award for nerdy high-art gizmos, Singer is a serious contender.”
Artists grapple with the uses and misuses of water.
Too Shallow for Diving: The 21st Century Is Treading Water, at the American Jewish Museum, is a provocative, broadly based art exhibit examining water as an essential resource with symbolic overtones, political currency and profound practical implications. Guest-curated by artist Carolyn Speranza, this ambitious exhibit presents mostly commissioned new work by 13 artists and collaborative…
Website brings the Pittsburgh music scene more of everything — except sniping.
“Burghsounds is something more akin to Internet Movie Database than Pitchfork.”
Drinking the Guava
Ever since I was a kid,my mother has been handing mecups of weird juice concoctions that I will do almost anythingnot to drink. This has something to dowith her being Sicilian and having a garden with 14 fig, 5 persimmon,6 guava trees. But now she is frail, in a purple bathrobe with fraying gold…
Raising the Bar: Friends, athletes pitch in for out-of-town Steelers fan
I always get irked when I hear a story about a major sports league cracking down on a neighborhood establishment because it cheekily gave away discounted beer when the home team lost or promoted a Super Bowl party as a Super Bowl party, instead of substituting it with the generically legal: “Big Game.” Without the…
Summer Is For Blueberries
If you’re pale-complexioned and going bald — and I am; thanks for noticing — summer gets tougher each year. Once you’ve faced the indignity of slathering your scalp with sunblock, the season’s childhood magic dissipates. Except where blueberries are concerned. Much of the year, blueberries come in tiny plastic boxes — the Tiffany earrings of…
Tiki standby Lemon Hart 151 due to hit Pennsylvania soon
For most people, the words “151 Rum” bring one name to mind: Bacardi. But true tiki-cocktail connoisseurs associate the high-proof moniker with a less familiar brand: Lemon Hart’s 151 Demerara Rum. Named for early-19th-century British rum merchant Lehmynn Hart — and made from a blend of high-proof Demerara rums aged in Guyana and colored…
Savage Love
I’m a straight man married to a bisexual lady, which is something I would recommend to all other straight men. My wife has a much higher sex drive than I do, and she’s also into kink, as a domme. My fantasies are vanilla, but I’m GGG. The problem is that she doesn’t initiate. She’s…
Critics’ Picks June 17 – 21
Local shows from Jasmine Solano, Earth, Milk Music, Mount Peru and Iceage
R. Stevie Moore leaves his bedroom after 40 years of musical diaries
On the phone, R. Stevie Moore sounds nothing like an eccentric recluse, or the high-voiced singer who can be seen in hundreds of videos on YouTube. He sounds more like a gravelly voiced record collector, which is exactly what he is. His tastes know no boundaries, be they genre or decade. “People say, ‘What bands…
Extended interview with Haley Bonar
Below is a longer version of the interview we ran this week with Minneapolis-based singer-songwriter Haley Bonar. She plays Club Cafe Sunday, June 19 at 7 p.m. with Daniel Martin Moore. I heard a rumor about you. You’re expecting? Yes, it’s very true! I’m due October 18th. I just found out that I’m having…
The Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls
Only a few minutes into Leanne Pooley’s bio-doc, you’ll be itching to wing off to New Zealand and hang out with the Topp Twins. They’re that infectious. Jools and Linda Topp — two self-deprecating farm gals from the back of beyond — prove that heart, humor and a fierce commitment to simply being oneself can…
Hobo With a Shotgun
Canadian Jason Eisner’s neo-exploitation flick has a simple hook designed to warm the hearts of any fan of the genre: Rutger Hauer is pissed and packing heat. Hauer portrays the titular anti-hero, who goes on a one-man killing spree to rid a small town of an even bloodier crime family, who pretty much view gruesome…
Cave of Forgotten Dreams
The documentarian persuaded the French government to grant him a rare permit to film in Chauvet Cave — site of the oldest known human art, animal paintings dating back 32,000 years. As a documentarian, Herzog (Grizzly Man) has a knack for engaging viewers’ imaginations even while pursuing his own eccentric lines of inquiry. Our interest…
The Art of Getting By
A couple decades’ worth of indie (and indie-ish) films means that writer-director Gavin Wiesen’s wistful comedy is pretty familiar fare: A bright but disaffected art-nerd teen (Freddie Highmore) discovers that one of the popular girls (Emma Roberts) is really a kindred spirit. Their friendship (and maybe romance?) will help each navigate that last tricky bit…
Recent Transplant
It was back in Illinois that she found her calling. Working as an art director in a Chicago skyscraper, Gina Olszowski felt increasingly divorced from home, hearth and heartland. She decided she needed to get her hands dirty — literally. Eschewing gloves, and shoes, preferring to feel the earth beneath her feet — and between…
On the Record With Haley Bonar
Minneapolis alt-country songstress Haley Bonar released her latest full-length, Golder, in April. She talked with CP about the album, her town and some … other upcoming plans. (A longer transcript appears on our music blog, FFW>>.) I heard a rumor about you. You’re expecting? Yes, it’s very true! I’m due October 18. I just…
Short List: Week of June 16 – 23
Thu., June 16 — Art Its last space, on Ellsworth Avenue, closed in 2010, but Galerie Werner resurfaces with a certain panache. Owner and curator Melanie Werner’s venue for antique European fine art now inhabits The Mansions on Fifth, a swank turn-of-the-century landmark in Shadyside. The grand reopening, featuring a preview of the collection, takes…
Police accountability measure tabled
After extensive discussion and public comment, City Council today postponed for one week a vote on a significantly beefed-up version of a police-accountability bill originally introduced more than a year ago. In light of the controversial arrest of Jordan Miles, more than a dozen activists urged council to adopt Rev. Ricky Burgess’ amended legislation, which…
