Last-minute cancellation: April Smith
Hey, heads-up! When you look in tomorrow’s CP you’ll see that April Smith and the Great Picture Show are playing Club Cafe on Thursday. That will be a lie. Last night, April Smith was forced to cancel a few dates because apparently her tour bus is in sad shape. According to Opus One, the agency…
Is Democratic fundraiser blowing smoke in Buchanan’s face?
Looks like Democrats are REALLY hoping that Mary Beth Buchanan becomes the Republican challenger for Jason Altmire in US District 4. A May 5 Democratic Committee fundraiser, after all, will feature two of Buchanan’s most prominent targets. According to a press release sent out by the committee yesterday: The Allegheny Democratic Committee will be hosting…
Trying to find a silver lining for conservatives in healthcare vote
I’m a liberal, which of course means that I instantaneously side with the downtrodden, the outcast, the loser. (I used to be a Pirates fan for the same reason … though there’s only so much even I can take.) So although I’m happy that healthcare reform’s victory seems assured, I can’t help but feel sympathy…
Healthcare reform passes, political headaches begin
Is it possible for something to be historic and yet not terribly surprising at the same time? That’s how I feel about yesterday’s healthcare reform vote in the U.S. House. Democrats got their shit together — OK, I guess it was a bit surprising — and passed the thing. Predictably, this was met with handwringing…
Squonk Opera’s Mayhem and Majesty
You might have heard that the Squonkers’ newest show is somewhat stripped-down and nonnarrative compared to their usual extravaganzas. Nonnarrative, yes — there’s no thread of story binding this two-act program of 20 musical numbers at the Kelly-Strayhorn Theater. But as for stripped-down, M and M is approximately as carefully and opulently produced as stuff…
Tomorrow: BRICKS benefit at AIR
Hello and happy Friday! Just dropping a quick post to let you punks, er, blog-readers that tomorrow (Saturday, the 20th) is a big day for BRICKS Pittsburgh, the cancer support/resource organization that my friend Charissa Hamilton-Gribenas founded last year after her husband, Rick, passed away from Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Tomorrow at AIR on the North Side,…
Alex Blumberg and David Rakoff To Speak at Pitt
This broke too late for our humble print edition, but radio producer and journalist Blumberg and raconteur and essayist Rakoff — both well known to fans of This American Life — will give a free talk at Pitt at 6 p.m. next Tues., March 23. The talk, sponsored by Pitt’s English Department, takes place in…
Short List: Week of March 18 – 25
Thu., March 18 — Art You probably wouldn’t go to Yongsan, one of South Korea’s oldest red-light districts, looking for fine art. But Yongsan’s sex workers have talents beyond what they sell on the streets. In Our Lives, Our Space: Views of Women in a Red-light District, Korea, prostitutes used digital photography to depict their…
Chen’s
Despite a charming old-school design, this Chinese restaurant’s food proves disappointing
Our Family Wedding
In Rick Famuyiwa’s rom-com, Lucia Ramirez (America Ferrera) and Marcus Boyd (Lance Gross) come home from college and spring their engagement on their families. They have just three weeks before Marcus heads to Laos to volunteer as a doctor, and Lucia’s family doesn’t yet know that she has dropped out of law school to go…
Green Zone
If the Iraq war had never happened, Green Zone might have been a serviceable and entertaining action thriller. It’s a fast-paced romp, featuring standard heroes and villains, vicariously made exciting with documentary techniques, and semi-serious with geo-political intrigue. Loosely adapting Rajiv Chandrasekaran’s book about the first year of the U.S. occupation, Paul Greengrass creates a…
Hot Franks
Hotdogs are just the beginning at this Strip District eatery.
CP‘s hired-gun cover artists get their day in the sun — and in a gallery — at the Toonseum.
“I decided, ‘You know, I’m an illustrator, and that’s what I’m gonna do.'”
Mixed Results
Outcomes differ for defendants who interrupted Onorato event
School Choices
North Siders say closing one school could affect others
The Price
Tracy Brigden again shows, in a different venue, that her insight as a director remains in place, bringing out the best of these talents.
Valu-Mart
This is an immensely satisfying work of theater, and there’s not a second you don’t feel trapped in the break room with these richly drawn characters and questioning your own assumptions.
Acclaimed poet and best-selling novelists visit Pittsburgh.
The writers’ series takes a second stab at assessing the future of poetry with two emerging names in the field.
Local comics artists Jim Rugg and Brian Maruca pay homage to blaxploitation with Afrodisiac.
The book’s array of styles — ’50s pulp, ’70s Marvel, ’80s manga — is hyperkinetic.
This Just In: March 18 – 25
Highlights from the local TV news: Tattoo You — Everybody Else
Selling Pittsburgh Short
Morgan Stanley finds few buyers on council
Silent Film
Labor lawyer stars in controversial documentary — just don’t ask him about it
What’s Up, Chuck?
Duquesne faculty, students say Dougherty making big decisions without input
Maree Gallagher works behind the scenes on behalf of local musicians
“It makes many artists uncomfortable to self-promote.”
Port O’Brien brings haunted melodies to Mr. Small’s, opening for Portugal. The Man
“When I was falling, there were a few seconds there when I was thinking, ‘Alright, I’ve had my time.'”
Local band The Ceiling Stares releases debut cassette EP at Gooski’s
“My old bands’ CDs — I’ve used them as coasters, used them to scrape the ice off my car.”
Louisville psychedelic rockers Phantom Family Halo visit new Bloomfield venue
“Fear, love, life, death, calm, horror, beauty, euphoria — all those things fall in there too. It’s my personal therapy through sound.”
Jazz drummer Allison Miller’s all-star project plays Club Café Tuesday
“Over the years I’ve realized I have to make my own music and do my own thing as well because if I don’t, I’m not spiritually fulfilled.”
A Conversation with Magik Markers’ Pete Nolan
“I remember how our friend Dumpster-dived some reels and there ended up being some P-Diddy shit on there.”
Savage Love
My husband and I have been married for one year, but we had been dating for 10 years prior to that. I thought we had a very understanding relationship. In the last couple of days, I have found out that he has a serious obsession with females wearing running shoes. He had in the past…
