ACLU seeking same-sex couples for survey
The American Civil Liberties Union is seeking same-sex couples whose stories can be used to help shape public and legal opinion, as well as demonstrate harm due to not being able to marry. From the organization’s website: “The American Civil Liberties Union is fighting to ensure all same-sex couples have the legal protections necessary to…
National Bike to Work Day This Friday
BikePGH offers cyclists hydration stations around town
New Wagner ad appeals to young voters
There’s been a long-running debate about whether young voters can make a difference in a Pittsburgh election — see here, for example, and here and the comments here. But there’s evidence that mayoral candidate Jack Wagner, at least, is taking young voters plenty seriously. The proof: his new ad, which features his daughter, Sara. In…
Lynn Cullen Live 05/14/13
Video Archive IRS scandals, Nixon and Watergate. Whitehouse can’t contact IRS directly, an abuse of Government. AP leak, searching for leak from Whitehouse. Searching emails, etc. Violation of First Amendment? Obama didn’t have any scandals in his first term. LAX to JFK, woman removed from plane in Kansas because she wouldn’t stop singing Whitney Houston…
Analyzing Keystone Analytics
From the outset, I’ve been a little wary of the poll findings from Keystone Analytics, an outfit owned by the state Realtors Association who has been providing almost all the polling data in this year’s mayoral race. It’s nothing personal; I just never heard of them, and they have no track record in predicting races…
New poll shows Peduto taking lead in mayoral race
Bill Peduto has regained the lead in the city’s mayoral race, according to a polling firm whose owners support his rival, Jack Wagner. Keystone Analytics, which is owned by the state Realtors Association and which only began polling political races this year, shows Peduto over Wagner by 39-32 among likely voters. And while the Realtors…
Wheatley goes Online with new ad in Pittsburgh Mayor’s Race
The Jake Wheatley for Mayor campaign is on the air with its first commercial…sort of. The new ad, called “Fairness,” is an online-only advertisement that will be targeted to individuals based on their Internet usage says Wheatley spokesman Daren Berringer. The press release announcing the ad uses words like “attitudinal criteria” to explain the technology.…
Lynn Cullen Live 05/13/13
Video Archive Monday denial; answers from a 4th grade Christian school student’s “science test;” the amount of carbon dioxide in the air hasn’t been this high in 3 million years; geology & the age of earth; USA most guilty for mass pollution & we will pay, reminiscent of Sodom & Gomorrah; garbage trucks setting off…
Wheatley spokesman on Luke’s $10k gift: “We were just as surprised as anybody”
As noted here a short time ago, an early surprise in today’s campaign-finance reporting period is that Mayor Luke Ravenstahl donated $10,000 to the mayoral bid of state Rep. Jake Wheatley. And guess what? “We were just as surprised as anybody,” says Wheatley spokesman Daren Berringer. Berringer noted that the money came in “just the…
Brave New World of campaign finance taking shape
Today is the second Friday before the mayoral election — a critical day for those tracking election spending in this year’s mayoral race. I’ll have updates throughout the day as reports come in, but a couple trends are already apparent. The effect of lifting campaign-finance limits in the mayoral race is already becoming apparent. While…
Ride of Silence next week
Ride on May 15 raises awareness and honors crash victims.
Lynn Cullen Live 05/10/13
Video Archive Norway is the best place to be a mom; United States – the only developed country in the world that doesn’t guarantee a mother paid maternity leave; people still dying in Afghanistan – reading of the names of recently lost soldiers; rising gov’t revenues shrinking the deficit quickly; cost of bailouts continuing to…
Protesters deliver budget wishes to Gov. Corbett
Artists and Working America members Julie Parker and Georgeanne Koheler A group of protesters with Working America collected state budget wishes on paper flowers from passerby today and delivered the “bouquet” of wishes to Gov. Tom Corbett’s Downtown office.
Lynn Cullen Live 05/09/13
Video Archive Guest: Tom Sokolowski; 25th anniversary of Visual AIDS, group who founded A Day Without Art; the horror of AIDS in the 80s; Luke Ravenstahl is in some shit; French Impressionist art sold at Sotheby’s by Pittsburgh Public Schools; former British TV personalities found out to be pedophiles; dangerous pesticide killing honey bees off;…
Delving into Racism with Clybourne Park at Pittsburgh Public Theater
The Pulitzer-winning play offers provocative observations on race relations. More in Program Notes.
Delving into Racism with Clybourne Park at Pittsburgh Public Theater
Pulitzer-winning play gets provocative
Inside SCI-Wexford (AKA Joan Orie Melvin’s House)
Allegheny County Joan Orie Melvin’s “prison” for the next three years If you think that Judge Lester Nauhaus took it easy on former Justice Joan Orie Melvin Tuesday by sentencing her to three years house arrest, think again. The house she’ll be confined to only has one — one! — fireplace. Orie Melvin was convicted…
Critics’ Picks: May 8 – 14
[ELECTRONIC] + THU., MAY 9 Toronto’s Crystal Castles has mastered the ability to straddle the line between making music that’s experimental and irresistible. The strange marriage of poppy and weird comes directly from blending the unique sounds that the two members, producer Ethan Kath and vocalist Alice Glass, bring to the table. While Kath’s sensibilities…
New Releases
Jill West and Blues Attack Bootleg Blues Live! (Self-released) Some originals and some interpretations of older tunes on this new live offering from one of Pittsburgh’s best-known and most-loved blues singers and her spot-on band. Interestingly, the originals are the songs that stray most from the standard blues construction, which shows that the band has…
Lynn Cullen Live 05/08/13
Video Archive Guest: Chris Potter; mayoral debates – Peduto won’t take Wagner’s bait; Orie sisters get house arrest, forced to make written apologies, like 4th grade punishment; family values crows have no problem with hypocrisy; Weiner & Sanford’s bad behaviour; can’t help who you fall in love with; Cleveland kidnappings & the comic relief of…
2013 Primary Election Guide
Executive Decision: The only sure thing in mayor’s race is change for the better Click here to view the larger image Click here to view the larger image Click here to view the larger image Click here to view the larger image
Executive Decision: The only sure thing in the mayor’s race is change for the better
If elections were contests of ideas, Pittsburgh City Councilor Bill Peduto might already have won the mayoral primary. In January, Peduto was the odd man out in a three-man field that included Mayor Luke Ravenstahl and City Controller Michael Lamb. Only Peduto supported waiving a city-residency requirement for police. Only Peduto was unwavering in seeking…
Dan Rooney and house historian Carol Peterson co-write a fine new history of the North Side
There is an abiding sense that the North Side never gets its due. The recently created nonsensical label “North Shore” for part of the North Side only underscores that the marketing geniuses felt compelled to distance themselves from the traditional North Side. It wasn’t always this way. The North Side has an illustrious history, both…
Savage Love
I’m a 24-year-old straight, married female. I have been religiously reading your column since I was 16. I turn to you now for advice. Five months ago, I married the man of my dreams. He was driven, hardworking, loving and happy. We had amazing, cosmic and connected sex, and we enjoyed pleasing each other. We…
A new book highlights legal battles against a West Virginia coal giant
In some ways, it’s the story of a big guy — coal kingpin Don Blankenship and his Massey Energy — beating up on little guys with help from a rigged judiciary. But it’s also about two mismatched lawyers fighting for those little guys. And it’s about the big corporate law firm that backed them against…
Short List: May 8 – 16
SPOTLIGHT: Wed., May 15 — Stage Five featured acts and one giant, walk-in artwork are the signatures of the 27th annual Pittsburgh International Children’s Festival. This five-day offering from the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust’s Pittsburgh International Children’s Theater takes place in Oakland, with ticketed shows in University of Pittsburgh theaters and free outdoor activities and local…
Off the Wall’s Without Ruth
WITHOUT RUTH continues through May 18. Off the Wall Productions 25 W. Main St. Carnegie. $5-35. 888-718-4253 or insideoffthewall.com If nothing else, you certainly get your money’s worth with Off the Wall Productions’ premiere of Virginia Wall Gruenert’s Without Ruth. It might be only 90 minutes long, but Gruenert has packed that hour-and-a-half with not…
Pigs-2-Peaches
Pigs-2-Peaches 100 Wises Grove Road New Brighton. 724-581-4595 Hours: Tue.-Thu. 10 a.m.-8 p.m.; Fri, 10 a.m.-9 p.m.; Sun. 8 a.m.-7 p.m. Prices: Breakfast and lunch $2.50-8; dinner $10-24 Liquor: BYOB To paraphrase Shakespeare: Let us not to a marriage of true palates admit impediments. Not even the distance from Pittsburgh to Atlanta could keep apart…
Five Women Wearing the Same Dress at McKeesport Little Theater
FIVE WOMEN WEARING THE SAME DRESS continues through May 19. McKeesport Little Theater 1614 Coursin St., McKeesport. $7-15. 412-673-1100 or mckeesportlittletheater.com Given the success of the 2011 film Bridesmaids, it’s not surprising that McKeesport Little Theater would unearth the 20-year-old Five Women Wearing the Same Dress. This 1993 comedy-drama about misbehaving bridesmaids is an early…
One Man’s Trash
One trick to good composting, if you use worms, is coffee grinds. “Worms eat their food mechanically. There is no acid in their stomachs to break that stuff down; they have no teeth. So they mush it around in their bellies,” says Travis Leivo, as he grabs a handful of rotting food from a bin…
Little Lake’s Little Shop of Horrors
LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS continues through May 18. Little Lake Theatre 500 Lakeside Drive (off Route 19) North Strabane. $12-20. 724-745-6300 or littlelake.org Whoever would have pegged a man-eating plant as a theater warhorse? Little Shop of Horrors has been charming audiences for decades in various guises, beginning with the original 1960 Roger Corman film,…
Local state stores seeking to overhaul their image
Pennsylvania’s original state stores “looked like commissaries in Russia,” admits Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board member Bob Marcus. “This,” he says as he looks around the rebranded Wexford Fine Wine and Good Spirits Premium Collection Store, “is the antithesis.” Even as Harrisburg debates proposals to privatize liquor sales, the Wexford store — like a companion location…
Two new programs let “shareholders” fund new art directly
Like most local artists, Sarah Parker isn’t part of a big, established organization. Her Continuum Dance Company doesn’t snag large grants or own its own building. The group largely depends on audience support and its own ingenuity. Local artists can survive that way, of course. But, says Parker, in Pittsburgh, “Art [has] seemed very imported…
No more store-bought jars! Making fresh salsa is so easy.
They say salsa has bested ketchup as America’s favorite condiment, and shelves of salsa at the supermarket attest to its growing popularity. But even the best jarred salsa can’t match up to fresh salsa (and the worst jarred salsa tastes like slightly spicy, lumpy red salt sauce). Making your own salsa is easy and tasty,…
Silk Screen Asian American Film Festival
Pittsburgh’s Silk Screen Asian American Film Festival returns for its eighth year. Beginning Sat., May 11, and running for nine days, the festival will present 31 films, mostly recent features from the Far East and Southeast Asia, as well as the United States and the Middle East. The festival kicks off this Saturday with a…
Iron Man 3
In Iron Man 3, inventor and part-time superhero Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) is still shaky from the events depicted in The Avengers. (I’m still a bit annoyed by the junk-fest that was Iron Man 2.) He’s self-medicating by tinkering with his Iron Man suits, but not for long! A dastardly villain known as the…
Saxophonist Colin Stetson steps into the spotlight
COLIN STETSON with SARAH NEUFELD 8 p.m. Sat., May 11. Andy Warhol Museum 117 Sandusky St. North Side. $12-15. All ages. 412-237-8300 or warhol.org Multi-instrumentalist Colin Stetson is one of busiest and most sought-after musicians today: He’s toured as a member of Bon Iver and Arcade Fire and collaborated with dozens of artists including Tom…
Sam Pace’s Gangwish issues a triple-LP-length work on a USB drive
GANGWISH RELEASE SHOW with BITCHIN BAJAS, GALACTIC SPIRIT, K-HUN. 9 p.m. Sat., May 11. 6119 Penn Ave., East Liberty. $7. facebook.com/6119Penn For all the reasons people lament the passing of LPs and CDs as the formats for musical releases, there are some, like Sam Pace, who embrace new digital methods of distribution. Not because Pace…
Mike Medved leaves pro basketball to pursue music
MIKE MEDVED BAND CD RELEASE with PAUL LUC. 6 p.m. Sat., May 11. Club Café, 56 S. 12th St., South Side. $10. 412-431-4950 or clubcafelive.com Plenty of musicians have day jobs as they attempt to establish themselves as artists, but Mike Medved is unique in being able to say that he was honing his tunes…
