Analysis: Ravenstahl Wins Mayoral Electon Bid
As expected by just about everyone, Mayor Luke Ravenstahl coasted to a re-election victory in the Nov. 6 primary. Ravenstahl beat challenger Mark DeSantis by a 63-35 margin, according to preliminary county election returns. DeSantis’ hopes were pinned on widespread disenchantment within the Ravenstahl camp, and the blogosphere has been running rampant with tales of…
Adventuresome Aussie dance company Lucy Guerin Inc. explores info overload.
In the Aether’s latter segment, communications technology is stripped away and we’re left with the human.
The Three Rivers Film Festival
The 26th annual Three Rivers Film Festival, presented by Pittsburgh Filmmakers, runs from Fri., Nov. 2, through Nov. 15. The program of more than 40 films includes foreign-language works, American independents, documentaries and experimental cinema, as well as several programs highlighting local filmmakers. Additionally, the popular Alloy Orchestra returns to provide a live score…
As You Like It
The real point is non-stop nonsense, both rhetorical and physical.
Jacob Ciocci and Pascua Lama at the Three Rivers Film Festival
More ambitiously, Pascua Lama provides the big picture: Despite massive mineral wealth, Chile stands to realize little economic gain from such projects.
Clock Wise
This coming weekend, we turn our clocks back and “gain an hour.” With your best interests at heart, I’ve personally devised a plan for you newshounds to make the best use of that extra hour you can. Hurry now … time’s a-wasting. — Why be content with mere snippets of gossip on the “local” news…
Lust, Caution
Ang Lee’s latest film — an espionage melodrama like Lust, Caution, which takes place in Hong Kong and Japanese-occupied Shanghai during World War II — decidedly bears his style.
Deathtrap
She’s the most well-grounded of the characters, and Stayer has a subtle way with fear that makes it more effective.
Dan in Real Life
It’s a checklist of in-the-movies-only domestic comedy — gorgeous beach house; family talent shows; perfectly scripted squabbling; sage elderly parents; and the sort of problem that gets a middling screenwriter motivated. (Capsule review)
Blithe Spirit
Among the seven-member cast, two principal players have polish, poise and the ability to project basic personalities.
The Darjeeling Limited
Three brothers — Adrien Brody, Owen Wilson and Jason Schwartzman — try to patch up their differences during a train trip to northern India. (Capsule review)
Barrett Black releases Silence is Golden
“It’s just surface, plastic music for both hipsters and homeboys.”
Variety is the spice of dance showcase Multiplicity.
“It begins with long languid movements and progresses into vibrant and percussive dancing.”
Martian Child
It’s a fine line between a whimsically bittersweet story rooted in some recognizable reality and the schmaltzy lesson-by-Hallmark pabulum that TV and Hollywood typically churn out. (Capsule review)
Buchanan Goes Gonzo
Why did U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan indict former Allegheny County Coroner Cyril Wecht? Was it because, as former Pennsylvania governor and U.S. Attorney General Dick Thornburgh implies, she was trying to indict Democrats to curry favor with her former boss, Alberto Gonzales? Was it because, as the Grant Street rumor mill will have you…
Routes Rock
Whether you’re looking for safe passage or something a little more exciting, city bike map has got a route for you.
Wristcutters: A Love Story
Committing suicide is no solution, they say, and you’ll believe it after scoping this very dry oddball comedy-romance-road movie from Goran Dukic. (Capsule review)
Hot and Cold
There is no substitute for experience … and no way to get it without taking a few lumps. And that’s pretty much what we’ve seen over the past two weeks from Penguins goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury. Fleury stopped 66 of 67 shots on goal over two games: a 2-1 Oct. 20 victory, in Washington, and three…
A Conversation with Dave Wheitner
Guided by a background in public-policy management and counseling psychology, Squirrel Hill resident Dave Wheitner wants to make an impact on the world. Though the notion is far from unique, the soft-spoken 33-year-old takes a different approach. He offers his services as “whole-life” coach, teaching people to be more socially and ecologically conscious as they…
Rachel Whiteread, an artist whose work critiques the built environment, is set to lecture at the Carnegie
She embraced the oft-cited but insufficiently realized tenet of ancient Taoist philosopher Lao Tse, who asserted that the crucial element of architecture was not the walls, but the enclosed space.
Pittsburgh Beer Society
You might think that to become a member of the Pittsburgh Beer Society, you’d need a pewter cup handed down by your great uncle Dunston, who christened it with the jowly spit of Handsome Dan during a cloak-and-dagger ceremony in the basement of Mory’s, in the summer of 1922. Think again, beer nut. No pedigree…
Brooklyn’s The Forms release Albini-produced album
“We do care about something being expressive and human and having some kind of emotion to it.”
While walking Downtown, I note a lot of lion sculptures on local buildings. Why are lions such a prominent part of the Pittsburgh landscape?
A lot of Downtown workers probably go through their workweek without noticing they are being stalked every step of the way. Sure, some of us do occasionally sense a slightly menacing presence nearby, but often that’s just a Duquesne Club member on the way to a ritual. But take a closer look, and you’ll see…
Judge freezes Carlisle’s council pay; trial postponed two weeks
Indicted Councilor Twanda Carlisle will be working for free until her trial on public corruption charges
It’s showtime for The Electric Six at Mr. Small’s Theatre
“Something about falling from a great height, and then there’s a pole involved, and something about her skull, but I honestly don’t remember.”
Activists trying to get a read on a library for Millvale
Millvale is home to one of the area’s best-loved French bakeries, a music venue and recording studio, and plenty of inexpensive housing. What it doesn’t have, though, is a library. Brian Wolovich, with Tricia George and the nonprofit group New Sun Rising, is hoping to change that
Barbez blends theremin with verse by Holocaust poet Paul Celan
Barbez’s intense, understated bombast successfully evokes Celan’s painful memories of youth.
Savage Love
I am currently dating a guy who is nice, funny, has a good “dating résumé” ( i.e., never married), good job, no issues. I have a good time when we are together and he treats me fine. The problem is that we have the most ridiculously boring sex. Super vanilla, totally predictable, and I never…
Indie vets reconvene in a Bottomless Pit
It’s an old approach to the verse-chorus dynamic, but with these guys it doesn’t sound like a formula.
Letters to the Editor: Oct 31 – Nov 7
Feedback from our readers: Potter a “wise guy” … county drink tax a “shell game”
The Breakup Society celebrates lower expectations with Nobody Likes a Winner
Ed Masley sings with a vulnerability that makes all the losers of his songs somehow loveable, and in that sense the triumphant wounded.
Going Through the Motions: October 24 and 30, 2007
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s endorsement of Republican Mark DeSantis for mayor over Luke “Stalking Tiger, Hidden Yukon” Ravenstahl left a bad taste in the mouths of council Democrats, most of whom DeSantis would end up having to work with if he actually won. “They can endorse who they want to endorse,” said Councilor Jim Motznik, his…
Phil Boyd’s Hidden Twin project releases Asleep in the Valley
Boyd is at his best on “Shoulders of a Swan,” an airy tune that’s thoughtful and poetic in terms of both lyrical content and melody.
At the Heinz History Center, Soul Soldiers reconnoiters the African-American experience during Vietnam.
The exhibit inevitably reflects our culture’s conflicted feelings about U.S. soldiers and the ill-conceived cause they fought and died for.
Istanbul Grille
Location: 305 N. Craig St., Oakland; 412-325-3346 Hours: Mon.-Sat. 11 a.m.-11 p.m.; Sun 3-11 p.m. Prices: Starters $3-7; sandwiches $4-6; dinners $8-15 Fare: Simply Turkish Atmosphere: Bright and friendly Liquor: BYOB Smoking: None permitted Who knows how food fads come and go? One year everyone is going out for sushi (and a thousand Japanese restaurants…
Novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie talks history, racial identity and the publishing game.
“I had one [agent] tell me, ‘You’re black but you’re not African-American, so I can’t sell you as black, and I can’t sell you as ethnic, because right now ‘ethnic’ is Indian.'”
At Liberty to Speak
Nearly three years ago, one dolly load at a time, Alethea Sims carted off 20 years’ worth of belongings from the East Mall, the federally subsidized high-rise she’d made her home for two decades. Sims was among the 300 residents living in the complex, one of three high-rise apartment buildings that had come to define…
