Lynn Cullen Live 05/15/12
Video Archive Phone Guest: Susan; statue of Rush Limbaugh in Missouri; PA state government looks like a police blotter; John Edwards case; UPMC Strike Zone at PNC Park; everything is for sale; new ( expensive ) St. Louis Rams stadium in the works; top 10 boy & girl baby names; DWTS update; Howard Stern on…
Unionization effort at Duquesne takes next step
Adjunct professors from Duquesne University are petitioning the National Labor Relations Board this afternoon to hold an election to unionize. The move comes just a few hours after the Adjunct Association of the United Steelworkers Union unsuccessfully asked the school to voluntarily recognize the union, according to Robin Soward, a member of the Duquesne Adjunct…
Lynn Cullen Live 05/14/12
Video Archive Sexbots; Pittsburgh Opera / Corbett protest; amnesia is the key to live life fully; Wall St. offended by Mark Zuckerberg wearing a hoodie; capitalism: predicated on bad behavior, ethics are optional; the rich are more likely to lie, cheat & break the law; NY Life deal w/ MLB; we’ve drifted from market economy…
Lynn Cullen Live 05/11/12
Video Archive Garden & Gun; Samuel L. Jackson’s wife & the willingness to forget; Catholic bishops going after Girl Scouts for being cozy w/ Doctors Without Borders & Sierra Club; Jesus would not be okay w/ most of the people ministering his teachings right now; Obama was bullied as a child / Romney was a…
Fitzgerald fires shot across the bow at Port Authority management
County executive Rich Fitzgerald had harsh words for the Port Authority today after a weekend of service disruption on its light-rail line. “The wait time and lack of service provided by the Port Authority this past weekend to residents and visitors alike is absolutely inexcusable,” Fitzgerald said in a statement issued this afternoon. “This agency…
Lynn Cullen Live 05/10/12
Video Archive Guest: Tom Sokolowski; Obama supports gay marriage; marriage vs civil unions; origin of marriage; can’t change people’s hearts; bad idea to leave marriage laws up to the states; equal protection; NYT illustrates the risk Obama took yesterday w/ battleground states; Obit: Nicholas Katzenbach, defender of Civil Rights Act & Voting Rights Act; the…
CD Reviews
The Woodpile Life Vacation (30K Records) Every once in a while a CD comes across my desk that’s different. I’m not saying this is the best local album I’ve heard this year, but it’s unconventional, in a good way. Punk riffs, understated vocals, some self-conscious weirdness, song titles like “Are You Freaking Out Yet?” —…
A new exhibit recalls a local ecological disaster.
REFLECTIONS: HOMAGE TO DUNKARD CREEK continues through May 25. Reception: 4-8 p.m., Thu., May 10. Mezzanine Gallery Art and Design Center Chatham University campus, Shadyside. 412-365-2702 Artists often feel compelled to respond to environmental disasters through some combination of photographic documentation, informational displays and elegies for what’s been lost. At Chatham University, Reflections: Homage to…
Critics’ Picks: May 11 – 16
[INDIE ROCK] + FRI., MAY 11 Kelley Deal and Mike Montgomery have shown their respective musical talents through years of impressive performances — Deal in The Breeders and Montgomery in Ampline. Now the two artists combine forces in R. Ring, an instrumentally simplistic collaboration consisting of vocals, guitar and piano charged with emotion. The duo…
Silk Screen Film Festival
Pittsburgh’s Silk Screen Asian American Film Festival returns for its seventh year. Beginning Fri., May 11, and running for 10 days, the festival will present 25 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 Friday with a…
Pennsylvania universities are leading the way…in high tuition rates
It probably comes as no surprise — especially to college students — that Pennsylvania’s flagship universities are among the nation’s most expensive. Penn State University’s main campus, for one, has long been among the priciest taxpayer-supported schools in the U.S. But as officials in Harrisburg gear up to cut higher-education funding yet again, it’s worth…
Late Arrival: Port Authority finally running 2005 voter-registration bus ad
In November 2005, the ACLU and the Pittsburgh League of Young Voters called the Port Authority to place an ad on city buses. This summer it will finally run — after a court battle that has cost the cash-strapped agency at least a half million dollars. The rejection of the ad — which informs those…
Spirited Discussion
David, with long hair and a dark sweater, rises, as do the eight others around him. He offers an invocation to the Great Spirit and the Ancestors. Speaking in English and Delaware, he asks for health and wisdom, for help with tasks. Mike, in beads and bandana, sings a traditional Mohawk prayer, accompanied by a…
Savage Love
I am a 26-year-old straight guy. My straightness and guyness are recent revelations, and it feels amazing to be able to confidently state this. Here is my trouble: I’ve had gender issues for the past five years. My now ex-girlfriend of three years said she couldn’t be with me anymore due to these issues. Our…
Short List: May 9 – 16
Children’s fest -May 16 The Pittsburgh International Children’s Festival returns for its 26th year. Complete with an outdoor stage and hands-on educational activities, the five-day visual and performing-arts festival is one of only four international theater festivals for children in the country. This year, the festival showcases local and international shows including the comedy “Dudes,”…
Root 174 hopes to establish new cocktail tradition
Root 174 1113 S. Braddock Ave. Regent Square. 412-243-4348 or root174.com “I get really geeked out about this,” Will Groves says, discussing the intricacies of Carpano Antica vermouth with a customer at Root 174. There’s plenty for Groves to be excited about lately. The Regent Square eatery, where he works as general manager, recently acquired…
Food gets a soundtrack of WYEP’s Pairings
When you think of pairings that go with food, you probably think of wine or maybe side dishes, but not music. But during WYEP-FM’s Pairings feature, two local minds — morning host Cindy Howes and chef Bill Fuller — meld the experience of dining and listening. “When you listen to a piece of music,” explains…
Lynn Cullen Live 05/09/12
Video Archive Guest: Chris Potter; new City Paper out today; PA college costs; Pgh Opera honoring Gov. Corbett for his contribution to education & the arts…..hmmmm; Yinzercation; what Dennis Roddy has been up to; Queen Victoria lineage; NC ban on gay marriage; Wisconsin election; tales of a looney lawyer; Santorum’s Romney endorsement; Mike McQueary, whistleblower;…
The Avengers
“As of right now, we are at war.” In Joss Whedon’s The Avengers, a gang of Marvel superheroes, led by Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), pool their skills to save Earth from a hostile takeover, led by the deranged demi-god Loki. The group dynamic serves the characters well: Robert Downey Jr.’s quippy Iron Man, Chris…
Yama
Yama 538 Third St. Beaver. 724-774-5998 Hours: Lunch Mon.-Sat. 11 a.m.-3 p.m.; dinner Mon.-Thu. 4-10 p.m.; Fri.-Sat. 4-11 p.m.; Sun. 2:30-9 p.m. Prices: Soups, salads and appetizers $2-8; entrees $13-28 Liquor: BYOB We’d never been to Beaver until recently, but the day that we spent in the town convinced us that it is one of…
Hit So Hard
If you were a somewhat troubled young woman with a predilection for substance abuse and still harboring scars from growing up gay in a small town, joining the non-stop early-1990s chaos that was Courtney Love’s band Hole was probably an awesomely good-bad idea. For Patty Schemel, who pounded the drums, the craziness of the Pacific…
New dance works set to Bloom at fourth Annual newMoves Contemporary Dance Festival
NEWMOVES CONTEMPORARY DANCE FESTIVAL 8 p.m. nightly Thu., May 10-Sat., May 12 (pre-show mixers 7-8 p.m. nightly). Also: Bloom! Dance Collective: 9 p.m. Fri., May 11, and Sat., May 12. Kelly-Strayhorn Theater 5941 Penn Ave. East Liberty. $15-20 door; festival pass: $35-50. 412-363-3000 or kelly-strayhorn.org. The Kelly-Strayhorn Theater’s popular newMoves Contemporary Dance Festival is going…
Monsieur Lazhar
After a sixth-grade teacher hangs herself in the classroom, a substitute teacher is hastily arranged for this Montreal public school. The titular Monsieur Lazhar is an Algerian immigrant who agrees to take on the understandably troubled class. He has a warm way with the children, despite some differences in method (he reads to the grumbling…
Mystery Lovers Bookshop makes way for new owner.
It’s an ironic twist a detective novelist might appreciate: The perils facing independent bookstores didn’t deter Richard Goldman and Mary Alice Gorman from starting their own. But it was a successful holiday season that convinced them to sell Mystery Lovers Bookshop. And they sold it so quickly thanks to an equally fiction-worthy coincidence. In 1990,…
Damien Jurado reinvents on Maraqopa
DAMIEN JURADO with JBM. 8 p.m., Thu., May 17. The Andy Warhol Museum 117 Sandusky St. North Side. $12-15. 412-237-8300 or warhol.org As a songwriter, Damien Jurado has always kept things close to the vest, so it’s a little surprising when, after just a few minutes of small talk about touring — “I like performing…
Death and the Maiden
DEATH AND THE MAIDEN continues through May 19. Off the Wall Productions 147 N. Main St. Washington. 412-394-3353 or insideoffthewall.com Ariel Dorfman’s political drama Death and the Maiden opened on Broadway in 1992, starring Glenn Close, Gene Hackman and Richard Dreyfuss. The film featured Sigourney Weaver and Ben Kingsley … and I bet you’ve never…
The Beach Boys’ complicated legacy
THE BEACH BOYS 8 p.m. Fri., May 11. Benedum Center 237 Seventh Street Downtown. $80.25-153.25. 412-456-4800 or trustarts.org When a band is around as long as The Beach Boys, each generation in its audience ends up with a curious compression of the group’s history and music. A few mythic fragments suggest the outlines: SMiLE (too ambitious…
The Female of the Species
THE FEMALE OF THE SPECIES continues through May 19. Little Lake Theatre 500 Lakeside Drive North Strabane. 724-745-6300 or littlelake.org Usually an “adult language advisory” outside a theater portends mainly extensive dependence upon obscenities. But, by golly, at the Little Lake Theatre Co. production of Joanna Murray-Smith’s The Female of the Species, there is actual…
Kevin Finn returns with a new album of contemplative beauty
KEVIN FINN CD RELEASE 7 p.m. Sun., May 20. Shadow Lounge 5972 Baum Blvd. East Liberty. All ages. $10. 412-363-8277 or shadowlounge.net Kevin Finn’s songs aren’t all instrumentals, but they’re also not your average pop songs with verses and a chorus. The longtime local folk musician has a tendency to paint with a sparing hand…
Legally Blonde
LEGALLY BLONDE continues through Sun., May 13. Byham Center 101 Sixth St. Downtown. 412-456-6666 or pgharts.org Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell were wrong — sometimes there are mountains high enough. Just back from the Pittsburgh Musical Theatre production of Legally Blonde: The Musical, and if I’m exhausted I can’t imagine what the cast and crew…
South Side braces for taxing-district decision
The South Side Planning Forum could decide tonight whether to advance a proposal to create a special fee for additional neighborhood services to city. The forum, which includes representatives from The Brashear Association, South Side Chamber of Commerce, South Side Community Council, South Side Local Development Company and South Side Slopes Neighborhood Association, meets tonight…
