Aquatic Life Gone Wild!
Summertime and one’s thoughts turn to water recreation. Heading for the beach? A lake, or even a river? Then stay away from cable TV and in particular, such hair-raising channels as Discovery, National Geographic and History. The old days of nature-TV where an avuncular host would respectfully peer through the grass at one of God’s…
Stupid Human Tricks, Japanese-style
The backchannels of cable have often hosted excerpts from those crazy Japanese game shows, where contestants dress in silly costumes and tackle equally silly obstacles courses. There’s some physical skill involved, but most of the programs seem to revel in simply having people fall into various muddy holes so we can laugh at them. The…
The Face Behind the Face of Grand Theft Auto IV
If you saw Michael Hollick walking down the street, you’d never think he was capable of wiping out a whole city block. In fact, you probably wouldn’t even realize that Hollick, a 1995 graduate of Carnegie Mellon University, could be the most famous celebrity to come out of Pittsburgh in decades. Bigger than Jeff Goldblum,…
Game Points
The crime rate is about to skyrocket in Liberty City. Car-jackings, muggings, even thrill killings will sweep the streets, and in the process turn a generation of young people into glassy-eyed, violence-for-pleasure-seeking zombies. At least, that’s what critics of Grand Theft Auto IV would have you believe. (Click here to meet Michael Hollick, the CMU…
Antojitos
Mexican fare could use some more authenticity and spice.
My Brother Is an Only Child
Italy’s turbulent politics during the 1960s are the catalyst for this coming-of-age drama from Daniele Luchetti. Two endlessly sparring teen-age brothers from a rundown town initially chose different paths, seeking to better themselves and their fellow countrymen. The elder brother, the playboy Manrico (Riccardo Scamarcio), heads straight for the factory and to communism. The prickly…
The Love Guru
Mike Meyers’ character-based comedy is not funny. At all. But don’t just take my world for it: The Saturday-afternoon audience (of 10 people) laughed once. (If you must know, it was when Meyers screamed: “Get off my tits!”) Directed by Marco Schnabel, this off-the-mark story about an Eastern self-help guru (Meyers, unctuous and puerile) and…
Kit Kitteredge: An American Girl
It’s a tough to produce a period drama aimed at smart young girls that doesn’t rely on cute shoes, cute boys and cute pets as hooks. So having the wildly popular American Girl doll-and-novel franchise on board can’t hurt. Patricia Rozema adapts one such tale of a plucky Midwestern gal and aspiring reporter, Kit Kittredge…
The Foot Fist Way
There’s more buzz about how this low-low-budget film, shot by buddies in suburban Charlotte, N.C., was discovered by Will Ferrell and propelled into the mainstream, than about the movie itself. That may be because everybody loves a Cinderella story, whereas few people like a laughless comedy. Foot Fist, directed and co-written by Jody Hill, clumps…
The Children of Huang Shi
In 1937 China, a young English journalist named George Hogg (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) gets caught up in the ongoing civil war/Japanese occupation. Thanks to the timely intervention of a Chinese rebel fighter (Chow Yun-Fat) and an Australian nurse (Radha Mitchell), Hogg is shuttled to a rural orphanage, where he becomes the abandoned kids’ protector. As…
Wanted
This kinetic, effects-laden actioner adapted from Mark Millar and J.G. Jones’ graphic novel relates the transformation of an office drone (James McAvoy) into a shadowy assassin under the tutelage of a scary-cool killer (Angelina Jolie). Wanted is an easy-on-the-noggin story, juiced up with familiar comics tropes: the avenging son, the shadowy group in a gothic…
Mister Lonely
The very-indie writer/director Harmony Korine explores a modern way of getting away from it all (i.e., yourself): His characters gather at a commune, where they live as celebrity impersonators. The central figure of Korine’s story is a Michael Jackson impersonator (portrayed by Diego Luna), who meets Marilyn Monroe (Samantha Morton), who invites him to the…
This Just In: June 26 – July 3
Highlights from the local TV news: Coverage of Pride Week does KDKA proud.
Activism: Group hopes to start homeless newspaper in the city
A local organization wants to start a newspaper to benefit the city’s homeless. But first it has to cut through the red tape.
Politics: Online site pushing Chelsa Wagner for mayor
As the 2009 mayoral election draws near, some voters aren’t waiting for actual candidates to support — they’re choosing their own.
Waste Not
Had you been at the Three Rivers Arts Festival earlier this month, you might have seen Katie Jameson digging in the trash. But she wasn’t. Thanks to the Festival’s new Zero-Waste Initiative, what festival-goers might ordinarily recognize as trash were bins of recyclables and future compost. Jameson, a recent Slippery Rock graduate and festival intern,…
Live Free and Die
On June 18, nearly one month after Nang “Ricky” Nguyen was killed by a Pittsburgh police officer, all that remained in his third-floor studio apartment was a stripped twin-sized mattress, a bit of furniture — and a deep sense of regret. Nguyen’s longtime friend, Allen Wolk, had been cleaning out the apartment, but he was…
Pride without Prejudice
The weekend of June 21-22 saw the LGBT community’s biggest march yet, and a celebration of one of its major legislative triumphs of recent years. It also featured another march, this one by feminist activists seeking their own visibility and warning of complacency. PrideWeek, the Delta Foundation’s new, expanded week of lesbian, gay, bisexual and…
The Odd Couple
Too much of a good thing, in this case, can be a bad thing.
Return to the Moral Abyss
Some of the plays have inventive comic premises and quite funny lines; others seem obvious and overdone.
Panache
South Park Theatre has again selected an unusual screwball comedy (instead of, say, Noises Off), so the choice is commendable, especially given the playwright’s local roots.
“Contemporary Alternative Photography” boosts its image at 707 Gallery.
These images are all shot directly into the sun; a technical advantage of the pinhole camera is that there are no visual aberrations, like lens flare.
How did the “Strip District” get its name? If I tell visitors we are going to the Strip District, they immediately get an entirely different idea of what they will see!
I’m tempted to ask: When they see what the Strip District really is, are your friends relieved, or just disappointed? But hey, that’s really between you and them. And the truth is that Pittsburgh’s Strip District, like Las Vegas’ Strip, has long straddled the gap between daytime family-friendly entertainment, and a what-happens-here-stays-here mindset at night.…
Bread Man: Jody Freyvogel
The man behind a variety of fresh breads, rolls and muffins
Savage Love
I’m writing in celebration of the California decision to allow gays to marry. I’m thrilled — I’ve always thought that the idea that gay marriage could hurt or affect straight people in any way was ridiculous. But a year ago, I found out I was wrong. I’m a straight woman in her late 20s dating…
Los Angeles’ The Frequency blasts off with We Are the Same Machine
This album’s definitely not just for Williamsburg wannabees.
Local shoegaze outfit Aydin releases Cyclones and Honey LP
When Aydin owns their sound, they’re a formidable force.
Prog-rock trio Rush returns to Post-Gazette Pavilion — and to form
If you’ve never seen Rush — or if it’s been decades — this is a very good time to go.
Southern pop architect Don Dixon performs at Club Café
As R.E.M.’s debut, Murmur, kickstarted the whole Southern-pop movement, Dixon’s production career took off like a nitro funny car.
Alt-country stars Old 97’s headline WYEP’s Summer Music Festival
Wry wordplay on both hedonistic barn-burners and hard-luck ballads made the songs a bit more meaningful with each listen.
A Conversation with Isaac Brock of Modest Mouse
“Sometimes the best records in a year don’t even touch what was the worst of another year — and you know what, that’s all right.”
Girl Talk says pay-what-you-want for Feed the Animals
Think “Whoomp! (There It Is)” over “In a Big Country,” multiplied by 150.
