Rent
It may sound strange to say that Jonathan Larson’s Rent, a stage musical inspired by the opera La Bohème, might not exist without Andrew Lloyd Webber. What, after all, do Lower East Side bohemian artists have to do with phantoms and divas? But Webber also wrote Jesus Christ Superstar, which itself might not exist without…
La Casa
Location: 5884 Ellsworth Ave., Shadyside. 412-441-3090. Hours: Sun.-Fri. 4:30 p.m.-close; Sat. 11:30 a.m.-close Prices: Tapas $4-12; entrees $18-21 Fare: Authentic tapas Atmosphere: Cozy, contemporary European bistro Liquor: Full bar When she moved to Pittsburgh seven years ago, Angelique sampled the local dining scene and came away hungry for two favorite cuisines. She found curry; she…
Touch the Sound
For Evelyn Glennie, a professional percussionist, hearing is a form of touch, something the body feels as a physical presence, and not merely as a stimulus for our auditory organ, the ear. It’s a philosophy Glennie has also earned physically, for she is profoundly deaf and, since childhood, has trained her whole being to be…
Soy Conveys
After 16 years of selling thousands of gallons of gasoline a day, Chuck Wichrowski now sells soybeans five gallons at a time — as biodiesel fuel. Wichrowski, 55, of Greensburg, recently left the gas station business to run Baum Boulevard Automotive in North Oakland — perhaps the only biodiesel dealer locally. Straight-to-the-tank…
BEE SEASON
When quiet sixth-grader Ellie (Flora Cross) exhibits a gift for winning spelling bees, her newfound talent throws her family of high achievers into varying degrees of psychic turmoil. Adapted from Myla Goldberg’s novel, Bee is no Spellbound, the charming 2002 documentary about kids’ spelling bees, but instead a dour think piece about mysticism, the Kabbalah,…
Turkey Day
You might expect Timothy Potts, the head of government-reform group Democracy Rising, to be grateful this Thanksgiving. After all, thanks to the efforts of people like him in Harrisburg, the state legislature rescinded its highly unpopular pay hike before adjourning for the holiday. But as Potts says, “I’ve been around long enough to know…
THE ICE HARVEST
Two employees of a Kansas gangster decide to lift $2 million from their boss and blow town — on Christmas Eve, of all inconspicuous days — but their plans derail typically: booze, women, the odd bit of bad weather and double-cross. Harold Ramis aims for black comedy, a bit of ha-ha Xmas noir, but everything…
Overturned Convictions
The older I get, the more politicians disgust me. So many of their moves are so transparent, they make a see-through blouse look like a potato sack. (By the way, we need to bring back the see-through blouse. In fashion, as in government, the more transparency the better.) But when the…
JUST FRIENDS
Poor Chris: He spent the whole of high school 10 years ago trapped in the “friend zone” with Jamie, while she dated every guy in class. Now that the former fatty nerd has reinvented himself as a hot, successful music producer in L.A., can he win his dream girl during a Christmas stop-over in New…
There several streets in Oakland named after 19th-century British writers — Ruskin, Tennyson, Lytton. Who decided to do this?
As at least one or two students in Oakland should be able to tell you, you could easily add nearby Thackeray Street to your list, after the 19th-century author of Vanity Fair. But as your question rightly presumes, the decision to name these streets after writers was authored by a single…
MIRRORMASK
.Teen-aged Helena, a bored veteran of her family’s traveling circus, becomes trapped in the Dark Lands, a mysterious dream world where even the oddest things seem familiar. Helena (Stephanie Leonidas) journeys through this perilous place, emboldened by her own common sense and the occasional glimpse of home, in search of a charm that will return…
Compressionism: The Pittsburgh Stories
The first story in Guy Hogan’s first collection of short fiction opens with a simile, but don’t get used to it. Writing in a style he calls “compressionism,” Hogan broadly eschews such linguistic adornments. The Pittsburgh-based author’s stripped-down language and close-to-the-bone themes harken, most obviously, to Hemingway, and the result is an uneven…
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE
It’s a timeless story — will the star-crossed lovers unite? — but told with such wit and clever observation that Jane Austen’s novel of social manners easily supports yet another adaptation. Joe Wright’s film is lovely and well made, with location shooting in old English manors, and marvelous fluid camerawork that’ll have you truly immersed…
Writers’ Bloc
Equal parts obsession and destruction, creative expression and euphoric rush, modern graffiti is a visual language spoken by a faceless network of renegade artists, outsiders and deviant thrill-seekers — each of them bent on leaving a mark. And for more than two decades, Pittsburgh’s post-industrial sprawl — its abandoned buildings, miles of open highway, pocket…
THE PRIZE WINNER OF DEFIANCE, OHIO
Jane Anderson directs this slice of mid-century Americana adapted from Terry Ryan’s memoir about her mother. Evelyn Ryan (Julianne Moore) kept her large brood – 10 kids and a boozy husband — intact with her relentless optimism and her knack for winning advertising-slogan and jingle contests. There’s a decidedly bittersweet thread to Anderson’s film: She…
Mountain Climbing
Back in the good old days, before JoePa got his panties in a bunch, every year around Thanksgiving we had the Pitt-Penn State grudge match to look forward to. Now we’ve got Pitt’s “Backyard Brawl” against West Virginia University. It doesn’t have the same luster, simply because I sense less enmity toward the Mountaineers. …
THE SQUID AND THE WHALE
The divorce of two literary types in 1986 Brooklyn brings assorted trouble to their two sons in Noah Baumbach’s painfully funny dramedy. While the parents sulk, spar over joint custody (including the cat) and get self-actualized, 16-year-old Walt dips a tentative toe in the dating pool, while his younger brother goes quietly off the rails.…
A Conversation with William Price
William C. Price Jr. has several thousand hand-blown antique glass paperweights, mostly one-of-a-kind portraits and advertising paperweights from 100 or more years ago. Using photos or drawings placed on milk glass and embedded inside, the globes advertise everything from an Ohio onion-seed dealer to Illinois-based Cuzco Embalming Fluid (“Use the Best”), as well as many…
YOURS, MINE & OURS
Mrs. North’s got 10 kids; Admiral Beardsley has eight. Even after discounting their deceased spouses, when these two former high school sweethearts marry, it’s a mega-family of 20 (more if you count the housekeeper, dogs, pig, etc.) Think of the North-Beardsley brood as three Brady Bunches. While the parents (Rene Russo and Dennis Quaid) swoon,…
Bob Wants You, But Do You Understand What You’re Getting?
What’s the Water Exoneration Hearing Board? “Have no idea,” says Dick Skrinjar, spokesperson for Mayor-elect Bob O’Connor, of this city government body And the Sinking Fund Commission? You can practically hear Skrinjar shaking his head over the phone. Nonetheless, O’Connor’s boboconnorformayor.com Web site has already opened these and 35 other city boards…
Gaming: Still Unanswered: Is It Better or Worse For A Project to Have URA Support?
Does the Urban Redevelopment Authority really support a horse-racing track in Hays? During a Nov. 15 state Horse Racing Commission hearing, proponents of the proposed thoroughbred gambling facility, brandished a 2004 URA “economic impact analysis” in support of the development. “While this report was done by a staff member, it is not a…
Anti-war movement: Protesters Get Unexpected Shot in Arm, Shots from Overhead
U.S. Rep. John Murtha’s (D-Johnstown) recent statement in favor of immediate withdrawal of American troops from Iraq has encouraged members of a group that has been making the call for months: those demonstrating against military recruitment. “We now have to push this farther,” said Albert Petrarca of Highland Park, who had joined the Nov.…
Voting: Machine Age of Voting Looms, But Questions Still Abound
Overheard at the Nov. 17 public demonstration of electronic voting machines, which Allegheny County will put in place for the next election in May 2006: “I want to know, do I get something when I walk out?” Everyone from poll workers to county Election Commission head John DeFazio to John and Mary Q.…
Neighborhoods: Uptown: Planning Realistically for Unlimited Potential
The Uptown Community Action Group has released a plan for bringing Uptown up from decades of decay, starting with what is possible to accomplish in the next 12 months. The group, headed by incoming City Councilor Tonya Payne, held a series of public meetings to formulate the plan, says Jeanne McNutt, a member of…
Walk the Line
Where do you begin to tell the story of such a singular and iconic figure as Johnny Cash, whose career spanned six decades and several genres? Director James Mangold chooses to open the tale poised just on the edge of Cash’s defining moment — his 1968 concert at California’s Folsom Prison — before flashing back…
