Pittsburgh Grooveline: March 21-March 27
Each week, the Pittsburgh City Paper compiles a list of Pittsburgh dance parties for you and your crew to bust loose to the best bangers, EDM, pop hits, and more. (All events are 21 and over unless otherwise stated.) Fri., March 22 In Bed By Ten: 80s Night at Spirit. 6-9 p.m. 242 51st St.,…
CMU International Film Fest: Girls Always Happy
The Carnegie Mellon University International Film Festival runs March 21-April 7. The theme this year is “Faces of Wo/men” and explores the many facets and tensions that come with the gender. It’s hard to tell whether it’s more difficult being a mother or a daughter. Each would probably say their own role, unless the daughter…
CMU International Film Fest: Rafiki
The Carnegie Mellon University International Film Festival runs March 21-April 7. The theme this year is “Faces of Wo/men” and explores the many facets and tensions that come with the gender. Once a film gets banned from its home country, that becomes the central focus of watching the movie, for better or for worse. Such…
Hill District judicial candidate Kim Williams advocates lower cash bonds and help for tenants
Allegheny County Jail’s population is ballooning and one significant factor for that growth is the use of cash bonds. According to a 2018 article in the New Pittsburgh Courier, 81 percent of the jail’s population has yet to be convicted of a crime. Many in the jail are held because they cannot afford to pay…
#FeedABee initiative in Allegheny County gives bee colonies plants and land to stay fed
In 2017, the Feed a Bee initiative set a goal to fund pollinator-dedicated gardens and farms in all 50 states. And with help from local organization Allegheny County Conservation District (ACCD), Feed a Bee reached this milestone. During the spring of 2018, the ACCD, in collaboration with Grow Pittsburgh, transformed unused and underused city space…
Meet Disco, this week’s Spring Guide cover artist
The painting seen on this week’s cover was painted by Disco the penguin from the National Aviary. Watch the artist creating this week’s masterpiece in our behind-the-scenes video by Renee Rosensteel above; then, enter to win the original artwork! Take a photo of this week’s cover and post it on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram; tag…
Dive into a landmark’s dark history with Lake Of Betrayal: The Story Of Kinzua Dam at Row House Cinema
In Western Pennsylvania, the Kinzua Dam is a noted landmark of the Allegheny National Forest, an area that attracts visitors looking for natural beauty and outdoor recreation. But the structure, located 200 miles from Pittsburgh on the Allegheny River, has a dark history. On Sat., March 23, that history will come to light with a…
BOOM Concepts celebrates five-year anniversary with first fundraiser
BOOM Concepts, the Garfield gallery space and arts initiative, needs your help to better serve the Pittsburgh community. Founded in 2014, BOOM Concepts quickly went from being a workspace for artists DS Kinsel and Julie Mallis, and JENESIS Magazine editor-in-chief, Thomas Agnew, to become a multi-use venue for exhibitions, events, artist residencies, and more. Now,…
The Velvet Hearts! present Brunchlesque, a ‘magically delicious’ show
Picture this: music starts to play, a spotlight swings to hit center stage, illuminating a performer. The star, moving to the rhythm, pulls out a bowl of spaghetti. Welcome to Brunchlesque. Take A Bite Brunchlesque is a “magically delicious” show created by the Velvet Hearts! Pittsburgh. This celebration of brunch is part of a birthday…
Charitable music video series Spare Change shows charity marketing strategies can be enjoyable
There’s a misconception that charity marketing strategies must evoke sadness and guilt. Picture Sarah McLachlan’s “Angel” playing as sick animals look directly into the camera and thus, into the viewer’s soul. Josh Corcoran is proving otherwise with Spare Change, a video series that uses music to unite musicians, businesses, and the local community in support…
Pittsburgh Opera teases the opening of La Bohème with Bohemian Nights fashion show
The Bohemian Nights fashion show almost felt like a secret. Located in the Pittsburgh Opera Headquarters, there were only a few sparse indicators of where the show would be held. I walked through an empty parking garage and saw a cheery woman dressed all in black, who opened a door into a dark, modern room with…
Proposed Shakespeare Giant Eagle shopping center gets a rocky rollout
On March 13, Phil Bishop, vice president of Echo Realty, presented a redevelopment proposal for the Shakespeare Giant Eagle shopping center at Penn and Shady. Councilwoman Erika Strassberger introduced the project to an audience of about 200 in the Parish Hall of Calvary Episcopal Church. This was the second major community presentation of the project,…
Lynn Cullen Live – 3/19/19
Video Archive Tuesday means Lynn is being joined by her sister Susan. They are covering a bunch of topics today. The White House lawyers are saying they want to see the Mueller Report before it goes to Congress. Susan isn’t worried, and believes we’ll see every little thing that’s in the report. They are also…
What happened to those feasibility studies for additional passenger rail in Pennsylvania?
Pennsylvanians want more trains. The Amtrak Pennsylvanian line runs only once a day from Pittsburgh through Harrisburg to Philadelphia, New Jersey and New York. Adding more service has been proposed for years, with towns like Johnstown, Pittsburgh, Huntingdon, and Lewistown begging for another train. But results from feasibility studies looking at adding passenger rail service…
AllegrA returns to Pittsburgh with a new EP, yet, not enough
AllegrA’s latest record was written in a weekend sometime in November of 2017, during three days spent alone in a dark, cold basement with headphones strapped to their head. But there’s not much cold or dark about the resulting record, yet, not enough. Instead, the EP feels like a conversation with a dear friend you…
On Transit Worker Appreciation Day, advocates call for steady funding amid impending crisis
On March 18, Transit Worker Appreciation Day, advocates at Pittsburghers for Public Transit (PPT) are not only reminding people to thank their bus drivers, but also asking riders to demand that Pennsylvania state legislators dedicate a steady funding stream to public transit. A lawsuit against the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission could mean big trouble to public…
#MusicMonday Wrap-up: March 18
Every Monday, CP staff writer Jordan Snowden wraps up the weekend in local and national music news with #MusicMonday. This week, she covers the latest concert announcements. Aaron West and the Roaring Twenties. Tue., June 11. Rex Theater, South Side. NEW SHOW: @ThisIsAaronWest & the Roaring Twenties come to Pittsburgh with special guests @musicpronoun & @DivaSweetly…
Lynn Cullen Live – 3/18/19
Video Archive The slaughter in New Zealand, and the failure of our president to address it is where Lynn is starting this week. Trump tried to minimize the problem. He doesn’t think white nationalism is a problem, and it’s just a few people. It is white christian males that we need to safeguard against. Instead…
Pittsburgh City Podcast: Comedian Gab Bonesso discusses this week’s cover story on the sexism and harassment facing women in Pittsburgh’s comedy scene
This week’s Pittsburgh City Paper cover story, a roundtable on the sexism and harassment some Pittsburgh female comics face in the local comedy scene, featured CP contributing writer and local comic Gab Bonesso. For this week’s Pittsburgh City Podcast, Bonesso joins CP’s editor Lisa Cunningham and managing editor Alex Gordon to discuss how the story was…
Mumford and Sons lights up PPG Paints Arena
It doesn’t matter whether you know 20 songs by Mumford and Sons, or none—their Delta tour, the band’s most extensive one to date, is commanding and immersive. Opening with “Guiding Light,” the biggest hit on their latest album, Delta, the four members filled the stage with wild energy and a lot of pandering to the…
Pittsburgh and Harlem dance companies join forces at August Wilson Cultural Center
When the curtains open on Stanton Welch’s “Orange,” three couples stand, their backs to the audience. It’s a striking first look, with stage lights bouncing off lush orange costumes, reflected in the deep, rust-colored backdrop. Statuesque dancers begin to move in short, almost mechanical jolts, softening with the touch of their partner. Over the next…
Scratch to host Revival Nights, where diners can re-live favorite menus from now-closed Pittsburgh restaurants
Every Friday, CP writer Maggie Weaver collects the most exciting headlines from this week in Pittsburgh food news. Here’s what we’re excited about today. Revival Dinners On April 8, Scratch Food & Beverage in Troy Hill is hosting the first Revival Night to celebrate menus from Pittsburgh restaurants that are no longer around. The first…
Lynn Cullen Live – 3/15/19
Video Archive The horrific mosque shooting in New Zealand is the main topic today. The shooter’s manifesto has been released, and it’s very similar to what the Tree of Life shooter expressed. It’s filled with concerns about white genocide, and protecting ‘their people’ from getting slaughtered. In addition to this story, Lynn is also talking…
Lynn Cullen Live – 3/14/19
Video Archive Lynn isn’t sure where exactly to start today. She feels like she’s spent too much time discussing Trump this week, and it’s getting to her. The second Manafort sentence was also a bit of a letdown yesterday. Lynn is glad to hear however, that Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance indicted him on 16…
Lynn Cullen Live – 3/13/19
Video Archive The college admissions cheating scandal is just another example of how the rich just can’t get enough. It sparks major rage knowing that so many students have lost their possible spaces in higher education due to these bribes, and test cheating. It never fails to amaze Lynn how many people there out there…
Mr. Smalls owners welcome a new edition to their roster of non-profit projects, Creative.Life.Support Records
A new, non-profit arm of Mr. Smalls Theatre in Millvale wants to offer local musicians a hand. Mike Speranzo and Liz Berlin, the owners and operators of Mr. Smalls, created Creative.Life.Support (CLS) in 1997 as a way to assist musicians of all ages with their career paths through summer camps, educational music programs, internship opportunities,…
In consensual non-consent fantasies, context is everything
TW: this column is about fantasies of being abducted. One of the most remarkable things about sexual desire and pleasure is how much they are deeply tied to context. The same sexual act that is really exciting with one partner may be undesirable or even unsafe with another. This can also be true at different…
Don Winslow has spent two decades chronicling drug wars in Mexico and a War on Drugs in the U.S.
Since the turn of the 21st century, Don Winslow has worked tirelessly to complete a trilogy of novels. Starting with Power of the Dog (2005) through The Cartel (2015) and The Border (2019), Winslow has devoted endless hours to chronicling drug wars in Mexico and the United States’ War on Drugs. The trilogy’s main character Art Keller —…
How to celebrate Pittsburgh’s Irish history without drinking green beer
This week, in honor of St. Patrick’s Day, Pittsburgh Penguins fans can treat themselves to German-style American beer in a cup emblazoned with shamrocks and a penguin dressed as a leprechaun. Let’s be honest, it’s not the best way to celebrate the region’s Irish heritage. Luckily, Pittsburgh has plenty of relatively easy ways to celebrate…
I cheated on my taxes, and it went how you’d expect
To be fair, I didn’t cheat on my taxes; my “accountant” cheated on my taxes. And it wasn’t cheating in the way that our president does; it was just a couple of white lies that might get you a slightly better refund. Or at least that’s what I thought it was going to be. When…
Pittsburgh artist Ana Armengod talks film, music, and eggs
Ana Armengod’s journey to Pittsburgh wasn’t easy. The artist, who works under the name Ana Humanleather, was born in Mazatlán, Sinaloa, an epicenter for Mexico’s drug cartels. As a result, she moved around a lot before settling in Braddock. But in 2015, her life as a student at Pittsburgh Filmmakers was disrupted when she was…
Black, white, and red all over: Tereneh Idia on the meaning of color in Maasai culture
In Olorgesailie, Kenya in the South Rift Valley I have seen OMWA: Olorgesailie Maasai Women Artisans of Kenya artist, Tale Leah, wear four different layers — a skirt, over a dress, with a shuka (vibrantly-printed fabric) as an apron and a shuka draped over the shoulders. Each garment a different color and pattern, all coming together elegantly.…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): The coming weeks might be a good time to acquire a flamethrower. It would come in handy if you felt the urge to go to a beach and incinerate mementoes from an ex-ally. It would also be useful if you wanted to burn stuff that reminds you of who you used…
A chat with Mumford & Sons guitarist Winston Marshall
Mumford & Sons returns to Pittsburgh on Thursday with new music, a new stage, and a whole lot of love in their hearts. The last time the four-member British group released a full studio album was 2015. The album, Wilder Mind, received much criticism for the band’s move from folk to arena-shaking rock. But that…
A roundtable with women comics on the sexism and harassment they face in Pittsburgh’s comedy scene
Recently, Pittsburgh City Paper columnist and local stand-up veteran Gab Bonesso came to us with a story about the struggles faced by women in the Pittsburgh comedy scene. Her motivation to pursue it came from the outrage over Pittsburgh Improv hosting a semi-secret show earlier this year for Louis C.K., the popular comedian who, in…
Trash has its own kind of history at Morgan Rose Free’s Things As They Are at Bunker Projects
When Henry David Thoreau wrote in his journal “…see things as they are, grand and beautiful,” he was referencing the greatness of nature. In his lifetime, cities hadn’t yet evolved to their current extent, but if they had, he might come to see them as nature too. Artist Morgan Rose Free’s exhibit, Things As They…
Hulu series Shrill tackles body acceptance (and working at an alt-weekly)
The worst part about being a woman is having a body. It’s difficult, even for the most conventionally beautiful women, to scroll through Instagram or look at a magazine and think “I’m completely satisfied with my body and feel no pressure whatsoever to change it. I feel free, and not locked in a flesh prison.”…
7 Days of Concerts
Thursday Octave Cat, Chalk Dinosaur 7 p.m. Club Cafe, South Side. www.clubcafelive.com Friday Crooked Cobras 10 p.m. Gooski’s, Polish Hill. facebook.com/CrookedCobras Saturday DJ Aesthetics, Sierra Sellers, Benji., Slim Tha Dj 9 p.m. Community Forge, Wilkinsburg. forge.community Sunday Wynchester, The Anonymous Chronicles, Living with Monsters 7 p.m. Cattivo, Lawrenceville. www.cattivopgh.com Monday We Three 6 p.m. Jergels,…
Mared and Karen is not a normal true-crime podcast
In its first episode, Kromatic Media’s Mared and Karen displays all the earmarks of a popular modern true crime podcast. Two women — college freshmen at West Virginia University in 1970 — go missing after hitchhiking home from a movie on a Sunday night. Their bodies are later discovered outside of Morgantown, but their heads…
Fernet adds a minty refreshment to cold, winter nights
St. Patrick’s Day is right around the corner, so mint-flavored things are everywhere. I know it doesn’t make any sense: Irish cuisine rarely calls for mint. But mint persists everywhere anyway, likely because it’s green like shamrocks (but also like every other plant). In that vein, I implore Pittsburghers to lean into the mint madness,…
Backstage with Quantum Theatre’s T.J. Parker-Young
Name: T.J. Parker-Young, Homestead Work: Patron Services Associate, Quantum Theatre Recent Projects: Inside Passage; Chatterton; The Gun Show What do you do? Take care of the patron’s experience at a show, everything from the moment that you drive on to the space to when you leave. Quantum produces in a new location each show, typically…
What are local comedy venues doing to be more inclusive to women?
The Pittsburgh City Paper reached out to a dozen local venues asking, among other things, what they’re doing to make the Pittsburgh comedy scene more inclusive. Thankfully, women leaders from the Arcade Comedy Theater and Steel City Improv Theater were happy to reply. Responses have been edited and condensed for clarity. Abby Fudor, creative director…
