Herb Society to hold annual plant sale Saturday
The members of the Western Pennsylvania unit of the Herb Society of America will hold their annual herb plant sale from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, May 18.
Citing “record” support, state lawmakers introduce non-discrimination bills — again
House Bill 300 and S.B. 300 have a combined 102 sponsors, 77 in the House and 25 in the Senate, including seven House Republicans and two Senate Republicans, legislators announced at a Capitol news conference. The bills would ban discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity or expression statewide in employment, housing, credit and…
Lynn Cullen Live 05/07/13
Video Archive Phone guest: Susan; Orie sisters being sentenced; SEC audits Harrisburg; destructive American gun culture; suicide & guns; why gun control won’t work?; using 3D printers to make guns at home; over 20% of Americans think an armed rebellion against the gov’t may be necessary in the near future; how 3D printers are also…
Kendrick Lamar now playing Stage AE, not Rostraver Ice Garden
One for the FYI files: The previously announced Kendrick Lamar show at Rostraver Ice Garden June 3 was cancelled, and the tour package was picked up by Stage AE; it’ll take place there the same night, Monday, June 3. The full details for the new show: Kendrick Lamar with Schoolboy Q, AB-Soul and Jay Rock6:30…
Activists to deliver state budget wishes to Gov. Corbett — in paper flower form.
Activists with Working America are inviting community members to write their state budget requests on paper flowers and will deliver them to the downtown office of Gov. Tom Corbett later this week. Members of Working America will meet in front of the Allegheny County Assistance office, 332 Fifth Ave., Downtown, at 11 a.m. Thurs., May…
RuPaul’s Drag Race: Alaska Watch
Will Alaska make drag history on tonight’s finale of RuPaul’s Drag Race?
Final public meetings for OpenSpacePGH plan scheduled
The final public meetings for OPENSPACEPGH — the city’s planning effort for open space, parks and recreation — will take place over the next two weeks. A public comment period will also open tomorrow and last until June 7. OpenSpacePGH is a component of the city’s comprehensive plan, PLANPGH, and will help guide city development…
Lynn Cullen Live 05/06/13
Video Archive There once was a time when ball parks weren’t named after corporations; Metropolitan Diaries: stories from New York City; has NYC lost its soul?; local commercial for Allegheny Health Systems — our only chance of competing with UPMC; should NY have made a hero out of Bernie Goetz?; what really goes on at…
Extreme pogo athletes springing into to Braddock
Photo courtesy of Xpogo A group of extreme pogo-stick riders will be heading to Braddock to film for the next week. The athletes are part of Xpogo Films, an independent film production company that has filmed the sport across the world, including London and Hong Kong. According to a press release sent out today, Xpogo…
Strip-Mining Protest Planned at Spring Hat Luncheon
Group targets event’s ties to PNC
School board candidate forum next week
This year’s election for the Pittsburgh Board of Public Education will result in the biggest turnover in decades. Our AmyJo Brown previously broke down the campaigns in this piece a few weeks ago, but you can hear candidates speak for themselves at a forum hosted by A Plus Schools on May 8. The forum will…
In rare accord, candidates have pity on us, agree to fewer debates
Leading candidates in the city’s mayoral race have apparently agreed to hold fewer debates in final days before the May 21 primary. Which among other things means I may see my toddler before he’s old enough to drive after all. Various Pittsburgh organizations have been holding debates throughout the election season — enough for Bill…
Lynn Cullen Live 05/3/13
Video Archive It’s a hockey night in Pittsburgh!; Obit: a life well lived in Red Wing, MN; commonly sold lipsticks & glosses have lead, chromium, aluminum & other hazardous metals in them; anti-UPMC flyers circulating; Crystal Eastman, 1800s: Men will not give up their privilege of helplessness without a fight; Wisconsin man sewing his daughter…
Harrowing play Our Class Closes Saturday
Play Explores 1941 Polish War Atrocity
Robot Repair Shop closing its doors
Artist Toby Fraley’s popular installation in a Downtown storefront is making way for change — but not before its best-known occupant makes his great escape. Complete the circuit in Program Notes.
UPDATE: Peduto backers denounce “Swiftboat” ad, contest earlier version of this blog post
Editor’s note: This post has been UPDATED. See remarks at the bottom. One of the things that’s so weary about negative political ads is that very often, everybody is right — the people who air the ads, as well as those who denounce them. Take, for example, a negative ad condemned by supporters of mayoral…
Robot Repair Shop closing its doors
Lone ‘bot will “escape” Downtown storefront
#bikewalkvote mayoral candidate questionnaires posted
Want to know where the city’s mayoral candidates standing on improving Pittsburgh’s accessibility for biking and walking? Improving citywide data on crashes involving pedestrians and cyclists? Planning bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure? Now you can find out. BikePGH, the city’s bicycling advocacy group, has posted questionnaires completed by Democratic mayoral candidates Bill Peduto, A.J. Richardson, Jack…
Lynn Cullen Live 05/2/13
Video Archive Guest: Tom Sokolowski; 30% of registered voters believe there may soon be an armed rebellion against the gov’t; gun sale background check vote failed because Republicans hate Obama more than they love their country; kids killing kids…and adults; craziness of gun culture; murder mystery unfolding in Pittsburgh; Luke Ravenstahl’s Facebook rant; the East…
‘Tis the Post-Season!
A couple of Penguins-related tunes from local musicians.
Author, Biking Advocate Visits from Amsterdam
Former Pittsburgher shares thoughts about city cycling
Embarrassment of Riches: Affluent East End has three strong progressive council candidates to choose from
Pittsburgh’s affluent East End has the kind of problems many neighborhoods would kill for. Case in point: trying to choose a city councilor to represent District 8, which encompasses Shadyside along with portions of Squirrel Hill and Point Breeze. Longtime councilor Bill Peduto isn’t running for re-election, to focus on his mayoral bid. Three Democrats…
Dance giant Mark Morris brings his dancers — and musicians — to the Byham Theater.
MARK MORRIS DANCE GROUP 8 p.m. Sat., May 4 Byham Theater 101 Sixth St. Downtown. $19-48. 412-456-6666 or trustarts.org I first met celebrated choreographer Mark Morris in 2002, on a tour of his state-of-the-art Brooklyn, N.Y. Dance Center with a dozen fellow dance critics. As we were being led into the main studio where Morris…
Celebrity Buzz
They say lightning doesn’t strike the same place twice. But when it comes to Nikola Tesla — mystic, inventor and pioneer of alternating-current electricity — there are bound to be exceptions. Among them is Michael Anton, a native of Jeannette who’s returning to filmmaking to tell Tesla’s story. When Anton left filmmaking at age of…
Pain & Gain
Pain & Gain Directed by: Michael Bay Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Dwayne Johnson, Anthony Mackie, Tony Shalhoub In the opening monologue of Michael Bay’s Pain & Gain, Daniel Lugo (Mark Wahlberg) lays out his philosophy about making it. It’s vaguely related to his job — he’s a muscle-head who works as a personal trainer at a…
Savage Love
I am a 23-year-old straight male. My ex-girlfriend and I started dating when we were both 17, and continued dating until I broke up with her after our freshman year in college because things felt too serious. We continued to have sex, but I blocked out all my feelings for her, while she was open…
Room 237
Think Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 film The Shining is (A) a horror film, (B) an adaptation of a Stephen King novel, (C) boring or (D) all of the above? Well, according to the five Shining-ologists of Rodney Ascher’s Room 237, you’d be wrong on all counts and just not thinking hard enough. In Ascher’s essay, four…
Threadless
Nude on canvas: I am threadless — posing like rivers I melt into the painter’s skin — kissing his eyes of glass I ask him to paint me an unbroken body — and take me to glass rivers I melt into the painter’s skin — nude on canvas: I am threadless — — Evan Renyolds…
Russian Film Symposium
The Russian Film Symposium, now in its 15th year, continues through Sat., May 4. The theme for this year’s symposium, co-presented by the University of Pittsburgh and Pittsburgh Filmmakers, is “Re-Imagining Class: Recent Russian Cinema.” Symposium organizer Vladimir Padunov, an associate professor of Slavic language and literature at Pitt, says that the focus is on…
Short List: May 1 – 8
Spotlight: Mon., May 6 — Talk Anthony Bourdain’s award-winning book Kitchen Confidential illuminated the unknown world behind restaurant-kitchen doors. The 2002 book, which also shed light on the chef’s personal trials, helped bring the behind-the-scenes food world into the mainstream and inspired a new generation of foodies. Bourdain, chef-at-large at New York’s famed Brasserie Les…
Disconnect
Henry Alex Rubin’s ensemble drama tells four somewhat interlocking stories of lives disrupted and consumed by new technology. In one tale, a teen-age boy is part of an online sex-chat group that a TV reporter is profiling. Two other teen-age boys are “catfishing” a schoolmate, leading the nerdy loner to believe there’s a girl interested…
R-Time at Rene’s
R-Time at Rene’s 1030 Fifth Ave. East McKeesport. 412-829-8113 Hours: Mon.-Sat. 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Prices: Appetizers, soups and salads $4-10; entrees $6-17 Liquor: Full bar Some say the phrase “you can’t get there from here” was invented in Pittsburgh. Whether or not that’s true, our region’s road system will make your GPS beg for mercy,…
The Josh and Gab Show uses music and comedy to combat bullying
The Josh & Gab Show has a memorable song called “Nine O’Clock Behind the Jack Rabbit”: It’s the story of a frightened kid at Kennywood Park who’s nervously counting down the hours until he has to put on a brave face and meet a bully for an old-fashioned middle-school brawl. He’s terrified, and admits it:…
Herbal Skills: Group provides chance to learn/teach about herbs
The women working in the sunken, walled herb garden behind the Phipps Garden Center reserve a wealth of expertise in herbs — those grown for food, medicine, fragrance or for the natural dyeing of materials. All are members of the Western Pennsylvania unit of the Herb Society of America; many have belonged for decades. The…
Edgewood Symphony celebrates a quarter-century
EDGEWOOD SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA SEASON FINALE CONCERT AND GALA RECEPTION. 3 p.m. Sun., May 5. Carnegie Music Hall 4400 Forbes Ave. Oakland. $10-15. edgewoodsymphony.org When Corinne Kraft rekindled her love of the violin, the Edgewood Symphony Orchestra gave her a place to play with others. Now the president of the organization — and part of the…
After long wait, Cure adds liquor service
It took seven months — time spent partially remodeling the dining room, building a climate-controlled wine room and overcoming liquor-license hassles — but Justin Severino’s Cure finally has a full-service bar. No wonder he hopes customers spend some time enjoying the Lawrenceville establishment’s new liquor offerings. “We want to encourage our customers to linger longer.…
Critics’ Picks: May 1 – 7
[NOISE ROCK] + FRI., MAY 3 Implodes is a Chicago band, but with Pittsburgh roots. Three of the four members of the droney soundscape outfit did considerable time in bands here. (Ken Camden was in Arco Flute Foundation, Matt Jencik in Hurl, and Justin Rathell in Alpha Control Group C.) On the heels of a…
The native wild onion known as a ramp is the star of the annual Greene County festival
Ramps, a.k.a. wild onion, wild garlic or ramson, are the new darling of the culinary world. These smallish, springtime leeks are native to our region and, not surprisingly, were foraged and incorporated into down-home dishes around here long before any chef in Brooklyn made them into a garni. Some local CSAs offer ramps, and you…
Lynn Cullen Live 05/07/13
Video Archive Phone guest: Susan; Orie sisters being sentenced; SEC audits Harrisburg; destructive American gun culture; suicide & guns; why gun control won’t work?; using 3D printers to make guns at home; over 20% of Americans think an armed rebellion against the gov’t may be necessary in the near future; how 3D printers are also…
Lynn Cullen Live 05/01/13
Video Archive Guest: Chris Potter; May Day!; Tupelo, Mississippi is a strange town; new ad attacking Bill Peduto, implying he’s a racist / only cares about 14th Ward; Luke Ravenstahl’s pathetic Facebook post ( that has since been taken down ); anti-UPMC flyers out in the mail; toddlers w/ guns; 97 degrees in Amarillo, TX…
Marc Burgess’ Adult Arcade is a rewardingly disorienting trip
ADULT ARCADE continues through May 17. 707 Penn Gallery 707 Penn Ave. Downtown. trustarts.org In the current exhibit at 707 Penn Gallery, Adult Arcade, viewers must overcome their disorientation and reflect upon how their presence is part of, but also separate from, the artist’s conception of a space. According to Marc Burgess, the individual “create[s]…
A Carnegie show lets the audience make photos for display.
OH SNAP! continues through May 12. Carnegie Museum of Art 4400 Forbes Ave. Oakland. 412-622-3131 or cmoa.org As with a wiki website, the principle for a show now at the Carnegie Museum of Art is user-generated content. In OH SNAP!, the public is invited to submit photographs for display in response to any of the…
On the Record with Kelley Deal of The Breeders
THE BREEDERS with THE CONNECTIONS. 7 p.m. Fri., May 3. Mr. Small’s Theatre 400 Lincoln Ave. Millvale. Sold out at press time. 412-821-4447 or mrsmalls.com The Breeders are celebrating the 20th anniversary of their platinum record Last Splash with the LSXX World Tour, on which they play the entire album, start to finish. Guitarist Kelley…
Pittsburgh Public Theater’s Clybourne Park
CLYBOURNE PARK continues through May 19. Pittsburgh Public Theater 621 Penn Ave. Downtown. $29-55. 412-316-1600 or ppt.org It’s no surprise that Bruce Norris, author of 2010’s Pulitzer Prize-winning comedy Clybourne Park began his career as an actor. The play, now at the Pittsburgh Public Theater, is chockablock with the juicy roles actors love and the…
Money Matters: From Act 47 to UPMC, mayoral candidates sound off on city’s financial state
Before he stopped running for re-election in March, Mayor Luke Ravenstahl spent a lot of time touting the city’s current financial picture — and his role in fixing it. And in some ways, the city’s financial picture has improved since he took office in 2006. The city’s debt has been cut from more than $800…
Pittsburgh Playwrights’ Ma Noah
MA NOAH continues through May 12. Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Co. 937 Liberty Ave. Downtown. $15-25. pghplaywrights.com Mama is certainly not on the couch in Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Co.’s production of Ma Noah, an award-winning 2004 serious comedy by company founder and artistic director Mark Clayton Southers. My “mama on the couch” reference is to George…
Heading for the Hills
Just how quiet has the Pittsburgh City Council race in District 4 been? Until an April 29 forum in Brookline, the two Democrats in the race had not been in the same room for a political event. And even then, there were few fireworks. Incumbent Natalia Rudiak told the crowd at St. Mark Evangelical Lutheran…
Romeo & Juliet at Carnegie Mellon School of Drama
ROMEO & JULIET continues through Sat., May 4. Philip Chosky Theater Carnegie Mellon University campus, Oakland. $25-29. 412-268-2407 or drama.cmu.edu Killer abs, killer shoes — and of course all that killing in the plot — enliven Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama’s production of Romeo & Juliet. Director Don Wadsworth goes “extreme” to yank Shakespeare’s…
