Downtown’s “Cell Phone Disco”
If I say the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust’s lastest public art installation looks better the further away you get, that’s not an asthetic criticism. “Cell Phone Disco,” unveiled yesterday, consists of a large-scale aluminum frame mounted on the rear wall of the Benedum Center — the brick wall bordering that alley (Tito Way) that runs from…
Transit cuts usher in “a very, very dark day in Port Authority history”
After five months of waiting in vain for state lawmakers to come through with a funding plan, the Port Authority board of directors approved today the biggest service reduction in the transit agency’s history. The plan includes a fare increase, 35 percent service reduction, and approximately 500 layoffs. The moves are intended to fill a…
MP3 Monday: The Composure
Howdy, blog-readers! Short and sweet this time around: this week’s MP3 Monday comes to us courtesy of The Composure. If you read last week’s Short List — you DID read last week’s Short List, right? — you know that this band consists of Punchline members and other folks, and adds a little nuance to the…
National Book Award Winner Terrance Hayes
In researching a 2006 profile of the poet and Carnegie Mellon professor, I learned that what seemed to impress people most was that there’s no pigeonholing him, whether personally or artistically. Everybody likes him, but no one seems able to pin him down; and he seems capable of writing in any style, about any subject,…
ICYMI: “60 Minutes” takes on shale drilling
If you were pre-gaming it for the Steelers/Patriots match-up last Sunday night, you probably missed it, but 60 Minutes took a look at the controversy surrounding “fracking.” Those following the Marcellus Shale debate might want to check it out — it beats watching game highlights, at least. The first portion of the report plays up…
Multi-talented Brian Dean Richmond’s artworks echo each other — and his everyday life.
“He wouldn’t call a gallery and say, ‘Hey, I have a show.’ You have to go to him and ask to see it.”
Short List: Week of November 18 – 25
POSTPONEDAs co-creator of The Daily Show, well before Jon Stewart hosted, satirist Lizz Winstead gets partial credit for helping the nation’s progressives weather today’s right-wing backlash. But Winstead, a performer and writer, has long since moved on. She co-founded, and hosted on, radio’s late, lamented Air America. She’s a news…
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest
The third and final story of Stieg Larsson’s trilogy picks up directly after the second episode: After putting an ax in her father’s head, and being shot and buried alive by her half-brother, enigmatic hacker Lisbeth is recovering in the hospital, as police line up charges against her. But crusading journalist Mikael (Michael Nyqvist) knows…
The Three Rivers Film Festival
The long-running local film festival wraps up.
The Next Three Days
In Paul Haggis’s thriller, John Brennan (Russell Crowe) is a mild-mannered community-college professor who plans to break his wife, Lara (Elizabeth Banks), out of jail. Wait — abducting someone from prison is a crime, too! Yes, but he believes she’s innocent — and it’s the legal system that’s wrong. Thus, most of the movie concerns…
Fair Game
Doug Liman’s Fair Game revisits the real-life Beltway spy thriller-cum-soap opera known as “Plamegate,” in which the identity of CIA agent Valerie Plame was leaked by the Bush administration, reputedly in retaliation for a critical op-ed piece written by her husband, Joe Wilson. Since the film is adapted from memoirs written by Plame and Wilson,…
Bistro Soul
A cozy, homey spot, but sugar and salt dominate the comfort food here
A new multimedia dance work explores the ubiquity of popular culture itself.
“From all the media, reality-TV shows, magazines and the like, it all comes at you and you have to consciously turn it off yourself to escape it.”
The Tim and Eric Awesome Show guys head our way.
They’re funny like “mom jeans,” or 1970s pornography.
Harriet Tubman Loved Somebody
Tubman deserves a real personality, complete with flaws and early failures that make the latter triumphs so much more powerful.
The Morini Strad
With a pitch-perfect performance by Carla Belver, we’re always left wanting much, much more from this character.
The Carnegie hosts a 20th-century photography pioneer’s quietly celebratory take on reading.
To photograph someone reading a novel at leisure on a New York rooftop was perhaps a kind of celebration.
This Just In: November 18 – 25
Highlights from the local TV news: Meter Made
The Hot Button
A look at this week’s most intriguing issue … and why you should care
Sweating It Out
Rankin company says sweatshop allegations are ‘smear campaign’
Over the Board
Beltzhoover residents say neighborhood council not transparent
JJ Grey & Mofro’s swampy rock hails from the “redneck triangle”
Grey’s hard-bitten vocals recall bluesy R&B crooners like Bill Withers and Dr. John.
The top five mashups by The Hood Internet pair rap lyrics and indie rock
“So you’ve heard of Passion Pit. But what about the lovechild of Passion Pit and Juvenile?”
Slick Rick, Doug E. Fresh and Chubb Rock play the aptly named Ole Skool Cabaret
These are still fairly young men, but old-timers in rap years, seldom touring or recording.
Pittsburgh loses a singular voice: Bobby Porter
“He felt that cosmically superstarish.” — Christiane Leach
The Mr. Roboto Project may be in limbo, but its annual ADD Fest carries on
ADD Fest “became a convenient anniversary party for Roboto, and then it became the de facto Roboto event.”
Lili Coffee*Shop
3138 Dobson St., Polish Hill 412-682-3600 For some Pittsburghers, Polish Hill is simply where Gooski’s and Rock Room are, a place to retreat to under cover of night for a drink or four and a punk show. There’s been little daytime draw for the hillside neighborhood — until this summer, when Lili Coffee*Shop opened.…
Savage Love
I have been married for 16 years and have three children. My marriage isn’t the best, nor is the sex. I have strayed many times, and it’s always been with women. However, for years I have had a fantasy about being with a transsexual. I recently paid to be with a T-girl escort. She was…
