MP3 Monday: Stranger Convention
This week’s MP3 Monday comes from alternative progressive jazz group Stranger Convention. Check out Treat Yo Self from the band’s new self-titled release. To download, right click here and choose “save link as”
In Second Year, Pittsburgh Fringe Ups Attendance
In just its second year, the Pittsburgh Fringe Festival was a success.
Listen Up! May 13
Listen Up!
Lynn Cullen Live 5/12/15
Video Archive You can listen to the audio archive here. Brady is suspended for four games. Americans and their conspiracy theories. Helen Prejean speaks for Tsarnaev at trial. 25% of Americans claim no religious affiliation. Putin and his bromances. Audio Only Archive Listen to the Audio Archives on with our new Apple and Android Apps…
MP3 (and video!) Monday: Derider
This week’s MP3 Monday comes from local rockers Derider. Check out the new video for “Rusty Nail,” above, and/or stream or download the song below! (The download link has expired, sorry!)
Lynn Cullen Live 5/11/15
Video Archive You can listen to the audio archive here. Raul Castro and the Pope meet. Castro seems convinced. NY cracks down on nail salons and their conditions. Kathleen Kane makes an alleged groper her chief of staff. Trawler caught on a submarine. How to take down the prison system? Eliminate bail. Audio Only Archive…
Film Kitchen Seeks Contest Submissions
Deadline for short films is May 26.
Lynn Cullen Live 5/8/15
Video Archive You can listen to the audio archive here. American poor are the envy of the world according to Darrell Issa. Network news lead stories are trash. Train derailment and toxic chemicals. Bucs win a game! NY Times writes on nail salons and workers. Telecommunications act and NAFTA. Audio Only Archive Listen to the…
Corrected Pittsburgh City Council District 9 Election Chart
The informational election chart highlighting a four-way race for Pittsburgh City Council District 9 inadvertently left off an endorsement for challenger Judith Ginyard. The corrected chart can be found below and here as part of our 2015 Primary election coverage.
Protesters turn out for city’s opening case in police contract arbitration
The top city lawyer says the city will make a presentation on disciplinary issues in the coming days
Lynn Cullen Live 5/7/15
Video Archive You can listen to the audio archive here. RIP Barbara Danko, County Councilwoman. Al Jazeera ousts exec. Deflate gate and Superbowl trophies. Pizza Hut employees rescue woman. Peduto and McClay hold press conference today. Audio Only Archive Listen to the Audio Archives on with our new Apple and Android Apps or the computer…
CP Weekend Podcast – May 8 – 10, 2015
This week on the CP Weekend Podcast: Hang out on the fringe, pick up some vintage treasures, or head back to childhood with scenes from Fantasia.
Avengers: Age of Ultron
Avengers: Age of Ultron Avengers: Age of Ultron Directed by: Joss Whedon Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Mark Ruffalo, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans In 3-D, in select theaters Wheee! It’s Avengers: Age of Ultron — this season’s Big Comic Book Movie from Marvel! It’s almost pointless to evaluate these films as good…
Signing the Divorce Papers, March 10, 2015
After so much thirst, even the empty jug looks enticing. I’m getting good at letting go/letting go at getting good. The path of war between us is worn and clearly drawn, today, I’ll sign your papers, then drop my shield and spear, lie beneath the wildflowers that burst along the grassy edges — let their…
Darkly comic local Web series Dog Bytes gets a theatrical screening at Film Kitchen
FILM KITCHEN 8 p.m. Tue., May 12 (7 p.m. reception) Melwood Screening Room 477 Melwood Ave. Oakland $5 412-682-4111 A local series, produced for the Web, hits the big screen at a strong installment of Film Kitchen. The monthly showcase for local and independent artists features the first five episodes of Dog Bytes, a darkly…
Short List: May 6-13
SPOTLIGHT: Sat., May 9 — Event #NOWSEETHIS is an evening of live music and new media art at the Carnegie Museum of Art, marking the first year of the Carnegie’s Hillman Photography Initiative. Organized by the museum and local music/art/tech collective VIA, it spotlights visiting performers Kelela, Lower Dens and Juliana Huxtable (about whom see…
Russian Film Symposium
The 17th annual symposium offers a selection of mostly recent Russian films tied to this year’s theme, “Red Empire Reloaded.” Some films screen on the University of Pittsburgh campus during the day, through Fri., May 8. Nighttime films screen at the Melwood Screening Room, in Oakland. A complete schedule is at www.rusfilm.pitt.edu. Fragment of Empire.…
Stuff We Like
Awake. After a car accident, a detective’s life is split into two worlds: one where his wife survived and one where his son survived. This 2012 NBC show only had one season, but it’s available now on streaming services. Water pitcher at Habitat. At this restaurant in the Fairmont Hotel, a frog delivers the water.…
The D Train
Dull family man Dan (Jack Black) is working on the committee for his high school reunion, but he’s no more popular than when he was a student. Then, watching TV, he sees a former classmate, the popular Oliver Lawless (James Marsden), starring in a sunscreen commercial. If Dan could convince Oliver to come to the…
Barrel Junction
Barrel Junction 5560 Community Center Drive Gibsonia 724-443-0066 Hours: Mon.-Thu. 4 p.m.-midnight; Fri. 4 p.m.-2 a.m.; Sun. noon-2 a.m. Prices: $4-15 Liquor: Full bar Barrel Junction came to our attention as a suburban bar with an emphasis on craft beer and a pub-style menu liberally featuring the words “house” (as in house-smoked meats) and “hand”…
Welcome to Me
When Alice (Kristen Wiig) wins an $86 million lottery prize, she goes off her psychiatric medications and purchases time on a local TV channel to broadcast her own talk show. The socially awkward Alice is inspired by Oprah — whose talk shows she can recite verbatim — but she isn’t interested in guests or topics…
Red Star Kombucha opens Buch Bar
“Just because it’s weird and ugly, doesn’t mean that it’s bad,” says Naomi Auth, co-owner and brewer of Red Star Kombucha. She lays a hand affectionately on a several-gallon glass jar, the home of one of the SCOBYs, or Symbiotic Cultures of Bacteria and Yeast, that make her brewing possible. This spongy culture takes tea…
White God
Like the mixed-breed dog that is its star, Kornel Mundruczo’s film combines several genres — coming of age, crime, dog adventure and cultural allegory — into one heady work. Viewers will surely be captivated by the film’s cold open: a girl bicycling through a deserted Budapest followed by a pack of dozens of charging dogs.…
On the North Side, Arnold’s Tea offers off-beat beverages and a comfortable environment
It’s not always easy being a tea drinker in a coffee world, but Arnold’s Tea Shop and Café — which opened in the North Side at the beginning of March — caters to those who prefer their beverages steeped. The menu features hot and cold signature teas, including chai lattes (masala, rooibos vanilla, chocolate or…
Wild Tales
Six darkly comic tales comprise this anthology film from Argentine writer-director Damian Szifron. If there is a theme, it is that people under stress often behave very poorly and with violence; each film also depicts some element of revenge. It begins with the shortest film, a funny bit of misdirection involving a woman traveling by…
newMoves Contemporary Dance Festival returns for a sixth year
NEWMOVES CONTEMPORARY DANCE FESTIVAL Program A: 8 p.m. Thu., May 7. Program B: 6 p.m. Fri., May 8. Program C: 9 p.m. Sat., May 9. Kelly-Strayhorn Theater, 5941 Penn Ave., East Liberty. BodyCartography Project performs Super Nature 9 p.m. Fri., May 8, and 7 p.m. Sat., May 9. Alloy Studios, 5530 Penn Ave., Friendship. Individual events:…
Anders Rhedin’s darkwave project Dinner is a natural fit for #NOWSEETHIS
DINNER with KELELA and JULIANA HUXTABLE 7 p.m. Sat., May 9 Carnegie Museum of Art 4400 Forbes Ave. Oakland $10-20 412-622-3131 or nowseethis.org Anders Rhedin is what you might call a true cosmopolitan. Until about a year ago, the Danish musician, who performs under the name Dinner, split his time between Los Angeles, Berlin and…
Irma Freeman Center show explores the miniature
THE BIG LITTLE SHOW: ART IN MINIATURE continues through June 20 Irma Freeman Center for Imagination 5006 Penn Ave. Bloomfield irmafreeman.org The Carnegie Museum of Art is a “large” institution, both in cubic feet and in reputation and status. The Irma Freeman Center for the Imagination is “small” in size and history, a relatively recent…
Bethel Park native Steve Moakler returns to his musical roots
STEVE MOAKLER with NEAL CARPENTER 7 p.m. Fri., May 8 Club Café 56 S. 12th St. South Side $12-15 412-431-4950 or clubcafelive.com When he was in high school, singer-songwriter and Bethel Park native Steve Moakler played music all over the Pittsburgh area. After finishing high school in 2006, he moved to Nashville and began a…
Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris at PICT Classic
JACQUES BREL IS ALIVE AND WELL AND LIVING IN PARIS continues through Sat., May 9 at the Trust Arts Education Center 805 Liberty Ave. Downtown, and continues May 14-17 at the Henry Heymann Theatre 4301 Forbes Ave. Oakland $7-54 412-561-6000 or picttheatre.org This season, PICT Classic Theatre has been staging productions not just in its…
Rapper Norman Dean advances his career from behind the soundboard
Like many millennial rappers, Norman Dean started his journey in the back of the classroom: scribbling down lyrics that he would later record into his phone and send to friends, asking for opinions. Unlike most, he stuck it out through the ups and downs of self-promotion and selling tickets for the promoters who put him…
Critics’ Picks, May 7-13
[INDIE POP] + THU., MAY 7 Musician and producer Toro y Moi (a.k.a. Chaz Bundick) has traveled a bit, musically speaking, since his 2010 full-length, Causers of This. That record of laid-back synth-pop — and the dancier follow-up, Underneath the Pine — made Toro y Moi almost synonymous with chillwave, then the genre du jour.…
New Releases
The Legendary Hucklebucks Hillbilly Death-Wrock Volume One (Brain Drain Records) www.braindrainrecords.com/hucklebucks Living, more or less, up to the potentially overblown self-description of “a freight train from hell,” the band’s latest release delivers a collection of songs which span country, psychobilly, heavy metal and good-old-fashioned rock ‘n’ roll. If that sounds like a lot, know that…
2015 Primary Election Guide
Follow the links below to see why selecting the right watchdog for city and county government is the most important choice facing voters May 19. Plus see our head-to-head comparisons in four contested Pittsburgh City Council Races, three Pittsburgh Board of Education races and the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. Links The selection of city and county…
The selection of city and county watchdogs is all about control
It’s easy to imagine that the battleground for the region’s top financial watchdogs would be fraught with arguments about finances. But to many political observers, the races that will determine who occupies the city and county controller’s offices might have little to do with pension obligations or auditing procedures — and will instead test whether…
Lisa Phillips’ Unrequited looks at women and romantic obsession
Romantic crushes are universal and, typically, innocent experiences. But what happens when your crush is unrequited? With time, most of us snap out of it and figure out how to cope. Others, however, find themselves trapped by incessant thoughts of their crush, unable to move on. In her book, Unrequited: Women and Romantic Obsession (Harper,…
Artist Adrienne Rozzi’s first gallery show finds inspiration in magic, witchcraft
On a balmy day in April, as the last vestiges of sunlight illuminate the dust that floats in the air of her Polish Hill studio, artist Adrienne Rozzi is thinking about spring more than most. A track from Sisters of Mercy plays quietly, but persistently, from her MacBook. The faint scent of incense hangs in…
In its second year, Pittsburgh Fringe relocates to the North Side
PITTSBURGH FRINGE FESTIVAL Thu., May 8-Sat., May 10 Various venues, mostly on the North Side $15 per show (multi-show passes available) pittsburghfringe.org For an underground-arts initiative, Pittsburgh Fringe had a decent first year. With stage performances by little-known artists in offbeat or improvised Shadyside venues, the 2014 festival drew about 1,000 and broke even financially,…
Savage Love
Last summer, I reconnected with a high school teacher I hadn’t seen for a year. We first met when I was 15, and I had nothing but respect for him and his intelligence. I also had a crush on him for the next four years. Fast-forward a year. He is sexting me and sending dick…
Lynn Cullen Live 5/6/15
Video Archive You can listen to the audio archive here. Apps are changing the world, one valet at a time. Al Jazeera English may be shutting down. Clarence’s health becomes a topic of much debate. Should Baltimore be more like Pittsburgh? NY Times columnist goes through mid-life crisis in his column. Russians off the coast…
