Folk-rockers Scythian return to Pittsburgh tonight at the Rex Theatre
A quick heads-up: Last January, I interviewed folk-rockers Scythian in advance of the band’s performance at Harp and Fiddle; tonight, they play the Rex Theatre in the South Side. But what’s a “scythian,” anyway? Thought you’d never ask: If you take the band’s word for it, “scythian” means a “bunch of pre-Mesopotamian barbarians who did…
At The Carnegie Museum of Art
Sunday was a good day to catch up with some of the temporary exhibits. Digital to Daguerreotype: Photographs of People is one you should try to see. (It closes Jan. 31.). CP ran Robert Isenberg’s consideration of the show back in August (www.pittsburghcitypaper.ws/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A66865), but it’s worth re-emphasizing that this historical survey consisting of dozens of…
Burgess in the running for city council president
So much for the post-election lull. City councilor Ricky Burgess is campaigning to be the next president of city council — a position currently held by Doug Shields. And while such contests are usually of interest to only a small number of City Hall junkies, who becomes council president next year may say a lot…
Payne-ful Choices
Today’s story about Daniel Lavelle by Rich Lord is a typically solid effort from the P-G’s ace city hall reporter. But tucked into the piece about the new councilor-elect is an interesting disclosure: Mr. Lavelle has filed a written complaint against [incumbent councilor Tonya] Payne, who is the Pittsburgh Democratic Committee chair, for failing to…
MP3 Monday: City Dwelling Nature Seekers
In September, locals City Dwelling Nature Seekers released their debut EP. As you might have gathered from its name, the band holds down the alt-country end of indie rock, citing (and revealing) The Band as a key influence. This week’s MP3 Monday is from them: Will and a Way, a laid-back tune with smooth vocals,…
Future Ten 6
Before the plays even started this past Saturday, two things jumped out about “The F-10 Play Summit,” the sixth annual iteration of this locally produced festival of 10-minute plays. Both had to do with the audience at Downtown’s Future Tenant Gallery. One, it was a sell-out crowd, with more than 100 folks filling the storefront’s…
College kids: Here’s one reason it’s happening to you
There’s an old saying — I’ve heard it ascribed to FDR adviser Harry Hopkins — that while tax policy often amounts to “robbing Peter in order to pay Paul,” the person who does it can usually count on Paul’s vote. Which is an especially good deal if Peter doesn’t vote at all. One way of…
Class Warfare
Today witnessed the pomp and pageantry of Mayor Luke Ravenstahl’s annual budget presentation to City Council. And as first reported in today’s Post-Gazette, the linchpin was a sure-to-be-controversial tax on college students. The tax would be a 1 percent levy on their tuition (room and board would not be counted). A Pitt student, for example,…
Going to the dogs: P-G reveals story cribbed Wikipedia entry
Oof. Here’s the sort of thing you hate to see in your Saturday morning paper. The corrections/clarifications section of today’s Post-Gazette includes the following disclosure: “The last three paragraphs of a story Wednesday on African painted dogs were taken virtually verbatim and without attribution from wikipedia.org. This violates Post-Gazette and industry practices. The Post-Gazette regrets…
Buchanan enters Congressional campaign — whether she likes it or not
Well, here’s a first: Mary Beth Buchanan actually helping a Democratic elected official. Western Pennsylvania’s US Attorney, with whom we’ve had some differences, is stepping down from her post this month. And there’s been word that the Bush appointee may be planning to challenge U.S. Rep. Jason Altmire in Pennsylvania’s 4th Congressional District. Is it…
Does anyone still care to talk about voter apathy?
There’s already been plenty of talk about voter apathy in Tuesday’s election, but I’d like to toss one last thought before the week is out. As happens in every off-year election, voters were given a chance to take an up-or-down “retention” vote on various members of the judiciary. Retention comes along for judges once every…
CMJ YouTube Followup
A couple of weeks back, we ran a column on the Pittsburgh acts playing at CMJ music fest in New York. Here’s are two clips from YouTube featuring snippets of local musicians performing and talking about the experience. Good Night, States talk about how they got on a showcase Wiz Khalifa talks tats and getting…
Stomach-turning turnout numbers
Still trying to parse this election in digestible amounts — i.e. amounts that don’t upset my stomach. As we’ve noted before, perhaps the most important (and most overlooked) race in this election was for state Supreme Court. Which Democrat Jack Panella lost, to Joan Orie-Melvin. What happened here? The P-G notes today that turnout was…
Let’s just cut out the post-election BS, can’t we?
I’m going to keep my next few posts short, I hope, because I can only think about this election in tiny little fragments. For now, I’ll note Rich Lord’s piece today in the P-G, asking whether Ravenstahl’s 55 percent showing shows a “chink in [his] armor.” I submit that it doesn’t make a goddamn bit…
Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde at City Theatre
Monster stories tend toward the metaphorically rich. See yesterday’s post on the zombie play The Revenants, for instance; any vampire story; and, maybe best of all, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, which I’ve been reading. But one useful take on playwright Jeffrey Hatcher’s adaptation of Stevenson’s 1883 classic (which runs through Sun., Nov. 8) is that it’s…
Short List: Week of November 5 – 12
With its vibrant sets and costumes, and the lighthearted musical synthesis of Eastern European folk and jazz, it’s hard to imagine Brundibár staged in a concentration camp. But this weekend, Pittsburgh Opera Theater and a cast of CAPA high school students decked out in vivid clothing and animal costumes restage the opera that premiered at…
Bitter Beer
After nearly 150 years, it has come to this: Iron City brewery is going up for sale, one piece at a time. On this warm October day, about 35 bidders have plenty of room to spread out in the Ober Brau Haus, the brewery’s brick-walled social hall. As they watch, a stainless-steel conveyor for cans…
New York, I Love You
Inspired by the 2006 film Paris, je t’aime, an anthology of short films set in the French capital, a handful of international directors apply the same strategy to the Big Apple. The filmmakers include Fatih Akin, Yvan Attal, Allen Hughes, Shunji Iwai, Wen Jiang, Shekhar Kapur, Joshua Marston, Mira Nair, Natalie Portman and Brett Ratner.
…
Coco Before Chanel
Coco after Chanel is probably the more interesting story — the French woman who was not only one of the world’s most famous fashion designers, but also revolutionized how modern women dress. Instead, Anne Fontaine’s languid bio-pic recounts the early years when a teen-age orphan named Gabrielle began assembling the pieces to re-fashion herself as…
The Three Rivers Film Festival
More than 50 films are on the slate as the long-running local film festival kicks off
Billu’s Indian Grill
At this Monroeville Indian restaurant, the welcome is warm and the tandoor is hot.
Philadelphia-based dance troupe anonymous bodies explores the shopping experience
The work for six dancers and mounds and mounds of clothing takes place in a post-apocalyptic version of a retail outlet where even in the midst of devastation the processes of shopping continue.
Quantum Theatre tackles Leonard Bernstein’s musical adaptation of Voltaire’s Candide.
Boos loved Candide’s combination of ridiculous jokes and “exquisitely emotional music.”
Neighborhood 3: Requisition of Doom
Neighborhood 3 is an amusement-park ride — you’re strapped in at the beginning and propelled through a series of twists, turns and dips.
A local writer offers an unsettling new short-story collection.
“Evolution” — the one about waterborne hormones undermining male DNA — creates an unsettling tension between the coolly satirical and the earnestly elegiac.
Under the umbrella of the Three Rivers Bioneers conference, sustainability has many faces.
“The community is hungry, and they’re not interested … in philosophy,” said Brown.
This Just In: November 5 – 12
Highlights from the local TV news: Dispensing Forgiveness
On Guard
Workers fired for talk of union get jobs back
Victimless Crimes
Prosecutors try to push G-20 assault cases without producing victims
The Hole Story
Is food-review site stifling discussion about controversial donut shop?
NYC’s Wetnurse fuses disparate metallic elements into the acclaimed Invisible City
In “Life at Stake,” amid the frustration rises a riff that wouldn’t be out of place on a Yes album.
A local Joni Mitchell tribute concert features well-known performers and a unique story
Ruby Vere, a longtime Joni fan, spent some years in the ’90s in L.A., and returned to Pittsburgh … having swum in her idol’s pool.
Cleveland’s NunSlaughter bring earth-scorching satanic metal to Skull Fest
“We’re not standing around in goat’s blood 24/7. We’re just some regular cats hanging out and playing.”
A Conversation with Jill Sobule
“I think today, instead of everyone being famous for 15 minutes, everyone will be famous for 15 people.”
Even alongside Icons of American Photography, Esther Bubley’s 1951 Children’s Hospital images shine.
Children’s Hospital is a kind of sprawling still-life, where nurses and patients are frozen in time, stethoscopes at the ready.
J’eet
J’eet jet? Well, you certainly should. The newest addition to the burgeoning Penn Avenue hospital corridor, J’eet café offers a mix of comfort-style favorites with influences from California-healthy to haute French cuisine. It’s a beautiful, inviting space — on a sunny October afternoon, the front garage-style door was open — specializing in salads, sandwiches and…
Learning German through music?
Christine Fréchard attempts to combine art with music and linguistics, offering language lessons with a unique artistic component.
Savage Love
I’m a 20-year-old girl, and I’ve been dating my boyfriend for two years. Like most straight guys, he’s happy to be with a girl who likes girls. The thing is, I am too shy to go out and hit on a girl. Getting a man was the easy part, but getting a girl who is…
