State releases first youth recidivism report
The Juvenile Court Judges’ Commission released the first comprehensive study of youth offenders in the state. Entitled Pennsylvania’s Juvenile Justice Recidivism Report, the study’s goal was to create a “recidivism benchmark” to measure the effectiveness of the state’s Juvenile Justice Enhancement Strategy. The idea behind the strategy, according to a press release from the state,…
Not-So-Wildlife
The plastic swan at the Allegheny Cemetery fountain enjoys the pleasant late-spring weather.
Third Avenue bike station offers free bike parking, and now, secure leasing
Third Avenue Bike Station’s fix-it area For a few months now, cyclists have been able to park their bicycles at the Third Avenue Bike Station — a transformed space in the Pittsburgh Parking Authority’s Third Avenue Garage. That area offers a fix-it space and parking for 30 bikes. And starting July, a “premium” parking area…
Lynn Cullen Live 06/11/13
Video Archive Erosion of trust in the institutions of our nation; responses to Snowden; leakers are no heroes; righties & lefties in bed together on this one; Russia is under a thug-ocracy; exabytes & zetabytes; Callers: Dave, Washington / George, Moon / Mike, DC / Joe. Audio Only Archive
Love your Block applications due Friday
Nonprofit groups who want to perform their own version of neighborhood clean-up and beautification have until Friday to apply for funding from the city’s Love your Block grant program. Projects selected by the program will receive a $1,000 Home Depot gift card and support from City departments. Past projects have included a rain garden, a…
Lynn Cullen Live 06/10/13
Video Archive Obit: Caroline, Monroeville, longtime caller; NSA surveillance; you can have the internet & you can have privacy, but you can’t have both; extent of privatization of our national security; information is power & people bend to power like plants bend toward the sun; young people don’t seem to care that the internet IS…
Rep. Frankel hosting town hall
State Rep. and House Democratic Caucus Chairman Dan Frankel, D-Squirrel Hill, will hold a town meeting to hear from constituents next week. The event will be held at 6:30 p.m. Thurs., June 13, in the Jewish Community Center, 5738 Forbes Ave., Squirrel Hill. Public entrances to the JCC are located off Darlington Road, near Murray…
Saturday: Merchandise at 6119
Tampa-based art-punks Merchandise released a new video yesterday as they kicked off a tour with Milk Music and Destruction Unit that stops at 6119 in East Liberty on Saturday evening. The three-piece released its latest, the Total Nite EP, in April on Nite-People. The new vid is for the title track: If it helps any,…
Lynn Cullen Live 06/7/13
Video Archive Audio Only Archive
Watershed Awareness/Rain Barrel Workshop scheduled
A Watershed Awareness/Rain Barrel Workshop will be held next week at the City-County building to teach residents how to protect local rivers and streams by improving watershed conditions on land. Residents will learn how to manage and reuse storm-water runoff and reduce their contribution to combined sewer overflow, flooding and polluted urban run-off. Participants will…
Museum Fires ‘British Six-pounder’
Replica historical cannon was aimed at Mount Washington (but was not loaded)
Tomorrow: California Guitar Trio
Hello, hello! Something that didn’t make this week’s paper, but is a worthy contender for your Friday night out is the California Guitar Trio show at Club Cafe. It’s $20 and starts at 7p.m. tomorrow evening. If you’re unfamiliar but intrigued, have no fear! The songs are instrumental, so you won’t be caught mouthing the…
Abortion-access bill heads to Governor
A bill that would preclude new state-run health-insurance exchanges from covering abortions passed the state Senate yesterday and now heads to Gov. Tom Corbett. House Bill 818 passed the state Senate on a 31-19 vote. (House votes can be found here.) The House bill is identical to Senate Bill 3, introduced by State Senator Don…
Lynn Cullen Live 06/6/13
Video Archive Guest: Tom Sokolowski; word pronunciations across the country; Corbett threw out NCAA lawsuit; charlatans; best selling magazine covers; June not a good month so far for Pgh sports; what’s happening w/ Ravenstahl & the Feds; yesterday was the anniversary of Reagan’s death; Caller: Joe. Audio Only Archive
Love your bike at Three Rivers Arts Fest
Spotted this one on Bike Pittsburgh’s website this morning: the bike advocacy organization will again sponsor bike-valet parking at the Dollar Bank Three Rivers Arts Festival. And, cyclists are being invited to participate in the “I <3 My Bike" program at the valet tent. Cyclists will have the chance to get their photo taken with…
Forum on Allegheny County’s food access issues to be held Friday
A forum on food access issues in Allegheny County’s communities will be held at 2 p.m. Friday, June 7, Downtown.
France Ha
Frances Ha Directed by: Noah Baumbach Starring: Greta Gerwig Starts Fri., June 7. Regent Square. In films like The Squid and the Whale and Margot at the Wedding, writer/director Noah Baumbach tells challenging stories about the lives of highly educated, highly creative, highly strung New Yorkers. The comparison to Woody Allen is obvious, although Baumbach…
With new bar, Soba keeps pace with trends it helped establish
As higher-end cocktail bars become more commonplace in Pittsburgh, one of the city’s trendsetting stalwarts — Soba — is stepping up its game. “Things were starting to get dated,” says longtime Soba barman Rob Hirst. The bar in Big Burrito Restaurant Group’s Shadyside restaurant hasn’t been updated since 2002, he notes. Although Hirst’s cocktail menu…
Now You See Me
Louis Leterrier’s comedy thriller about a renegade group of illusionists, Now You See Me, relies heavily on one of magic’s biggest tricks: Create enough flash-and-crash diversion, and audiences won’t immediately notice it’s the same tired routine. And apparently without guile, the film’s script — a weak pastiche of one-liners and plot holes — explains this…
An outpost of Meadows Frozen Custard opens in Cranberry
Growing up in Indiana, Pa., Joe Bier and his wife, Jodi, ate so much Meadows Frozen Custard that they often joked that “we should just open one of our own.” After moving to Pittsburgh, the Biers did just that. In March, they opened their own Meadows Frozen Custard on Route 19, in Cranberry. The Meadows…
Love Is All You Need
The story revolves around the middle-aged Ida (Trine Dyrholm), who has just been declared cancer-free and declines reconstructive surgery, certain her husband won’t care. Then she catches him with the girl from accounting. Philip (Pierce Brosnan), a British businessman in Denmark, recently lost his wife and has “chosen to be by myself” rather than to…
The Source Family
Maybe you already know about the 1970s Los Angeles-based free-love-and-vegetables cult known as the Source Family? Among its distinctions, the group fronted a rock band, YaHoWa 13, which recorded several psych-rock LPs treasured by vinyl collectors (and since digitally re-released). Maria Demopoulos and Jodi Wille’s documentary recounts the rise and fall of the Source Family,…
Pittsburgh JazzLive International Festival brings more big names for free shows
PITTSBURGH JAZZLIVE INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL. Fri., June 7-Sun., June 9. Various outdoor and indoor venues, Downtown. Main stages: Penn Avenue and Ninth Street. Rudresh Mahanthappa performs 3 p.m. Sat., June 8. Performances free, all ages. 412-456-6666 or pittsburghjazzlive.com Editor’s note: As of Thu., June 6, Chaka Khan is no longer playing Pittsburgh JazzLive International, due to…
Thunder Vest makes good old-fashioned punk rock
THUNDER VEST CD RELEASE with PLAYOFF BEARD, LATECOMER. 10 p.m. Sat., June 8. 31st Street Pub, 3101 Penn Ave., Strip District. $5. 412-391-8334 or 31stpub.com Punk rock is alive and well, living in Pittsburgh … and named after a vest designed to keep animals calm. Since July 2012, Thunder Vest has been playing, writing and…
Shadyside Nursery to host Sunday-night outdoor music series
WEATHER PERMITTING featuring LUNGS FACE FEET, TALUNA. 5 p.m. Sun., June 9. Repeats every Sunday through the end of August with different bands. Shadyside Nursery, 510 Maryland Ave., Shadyside. $10. All ages. facebook.com/weatherpermittingpgh It was a bit of serendipity that led Pete Spynda — best known these days as the DJ behind the Pandemic world-music…
Critics’ Picks: June 5 – 11
[AMERICANA] + FRI., JUNE 7 Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros slightly predated the current explosion of foot-stompin’, “HEY!”-yellin’ folk acts with 17 people apiece; the band’s catchy-as-hell single “Home” came out in 2009, though it didn’t hit the big time in the U.S. until 2011, when it was suddenly in every TV commercial ever.…
Gregory Barsamian’s kinetic sculptures captivate at Wood Street.
GREGORY BARSAMIAN: MEMENTO MORI continues through June 16. Wood Street Galleries, 601 Wood St., Downtown. 412-471-5605 or woodstreet galleries.org Animation lies at the heart of Gregory Barsamian’s sculptural enterprise. With their three-dimensional constructions viewed as sequences keyed to a flashing strobe — think Claymation in the flesh — Barsamian’s frenetic, kinetic sculptures cycle through brief…
On the Record with Kevin Garrett of Noble Hunter
NOBLE HUNTER with NIC LAWLESS, TONY RESCH. 9 p.m. Fri., June 7. Thunderbird Café, 4023 Butler St., Lawrenceville. $7. 412-682-0177 or thunderbirdcafe.net A few years ago, Pittsburgh native Kevin Garrett, 22, left town to study music technology at New York University. Now a recent graduate, Garrett returns to the area as vocalist and guitarist for…
Stage Briefs
August Wilson was still alive when, in 2003, Pittsburgh Playwrights launched its ambitious quest to become the first theater company to stage all the plays in the towering playwright’s famed Pittsburgh Cycle in the order they premiered on Broadway, one each year. That first show was Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, directed by Eileen J. Morris.…
The Neverending Story: It’s been 13 years since the state took over the failing Duquesne school system. So why haven’t things gotten better?
The office of the acting superintendent of the Duquesne City School District is clearly temporary, barren of the personal artifacts and personal touches one typically finds in such offices. Instead, posted on the wall next to the door is a quote printed on plain white paper: “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways…
Lynn Cullen Live 06/5/13
Video Archive Guest: Chris Potter; TX judge Edith Jones believes black & Hispanic people are predisposed to crime; new CP out today; what will happen to the Buncher development in the Strip District?; is Pgh the new Portland?; boutique hotel to open Downtown; ice makers in Polish Hill; TSA humour; found dog poop mailed back…
John Hanger wants to be the progressives’ choice for governor; unfortunately for him, he’s not alone
The first time Democrats prepared to take on Tom Corbett, back in 2010, liberal voters had an unenviable choice. The party’s front-runners, Dan Onorato and Jack Wagner, both skewed moderate-to-conservative. The most progressive Democratic candidate, Montgomery County Commission Joe Hoeffel, finished fourth in the primary. More than a year away from Corbett’s re-election battle, things…
PICT’s The Kreutzer Sonata
THE KREUTZER SONATA continues through June 22. Henry Heymann Theatre, Stephen Foster Memorial, Forbes Avenue at Bigelow, Oakland. $25-48. 412-561-6000 or picttheatre.org How timely Leo Tolstoy can be, in the hands of Irish playwright Nancy Harris and Pittsburgh Irish & Classical Theatre. The Kreutzer Sonata, which started life in 1889 as a scandalous novella, has…
Savage Love
I love my husband of 20 years, but our sexual differences are putting a strain on our marriage. Ten years ago, he asked me to talk dirty to him about having sex with other men. It has progressed to him wanting to be a cuckold. I only want to be with him, but he presses…
Man of La Mancha at The Company of Pittsburgh
MAN OF LA MANCHA continues through Sat., June 8. The Company of Pittsburgh at Off the Wall Theater, 25 W. Main St., Carnegie. $20. companyofpgh.org It was Picasso himself who painted the most iconic image of Don Quixote — a black-and-white sketch of a skinny old man on a horse, little Sancho at his side,…
Short List: June 5 – 13
FREE EVENT: Fri., June 7 — Festival There seems to be more visual art than usual at this year’s Dollar Bank Three Rivers Arts Festival. Yes, this Pittsburgh Cultural Trust production still includes an arts ‘n’ crafts market and nightly musical headliners from Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros to Ralph Stanley and the Pittsburgh…
42nd Street at Pittsburgh CLO
42nd STREET continues through Sun., June 9. Benedum Center 719 Liberty Ave., Downtown. $10-65.75. 412-456-6666 or pgharts.org I caught Star Trek: Into Darkness the night before I saw the Pittsburgh CLO’s production of 42nd Street and couldn’t help comparing the two. Star Trek was OK, but I left thinking it was all green screen with…
Isis Café
Isis Cafe 815 Brookline Blvd., Brookline. 412-207-2485 Hours: Tue.-Fri. lunch 11 a.m.-2 p.m., dinner 4-8 p.m.; Sat. 11 a.m.-8 p.m.; Sun. brunch 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Prices: Appetizers, soups and salads $2.50-4.50; entrees $6.50-16.50 Liquor: BYOB When you think of the most international neighborhoods in Pittsburgh, you probably don’t think of Brookline. But maybe you should.…
Pittsburgh group hosts a rare gathering of exiled Chinese political dissidents.
EXILED VOICES OF CHINA AND TIBET 1-9 p.m. Monterey Street between Jacksonia and Sampsonia, North Side. Free. Reservations required at ehutton@cityofasylumpittsburgh.org Exiled Voices of China and Tibet is sure to be Pittsburgh’s biggest-ever gathering of prominent expatriate Chinese dissidents. It might be the biggest anywhere. On June 8, the day-long City of Asylum Pittsburgh event…
Getting Carded: Local farmers’ markets again accepting food stamps
At least two of Pittsburgh’s Citiparks farmers’ markets — the East Liberty and North Side locations — will accept food stamps this season. “It’s a win-win for poor people, affluent people, farmers and the communities,” says Ken Regal, executive director of Just Harvest, a local nonprofit that helped acquire several free Electronic Benefit…
